


heart of gold & stardust soul

by cl410



Series: Legacy [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Teen Wolf (TV), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alive Hale Family, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Fusion, BAMF Darcy Lewis, BAMF Jane Foster, Canon-Typical Violence, Darcy Lewis-centric, F/F, F/M, Gen, Jane Foster & Darcy Lewis Friendship, M/M, Magic Darcy Lewis, Powers Darcy, Spark Darcy Lewis, Spark!Darcy, Tattooed Darcy Lewis, Vampires, Werewolves, Women Being Awesome, fae, supernatural politics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-19
Updated: 2018-08-08
Packaged: 2019-06-13 01:14:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 25,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15352983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cl410/pseuds/cl410
Summary: Darcy's life spiraled out of control much faster than she'd ever thought possible.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> And Part 2 is up! I'm very excited to see what you guys think :) 
> 
> Title is from a poem by r.m. broderick. I actually yelled out loud when I came across it, because there’s literally no better description of the Darcy & Jane duo.
> 
> For those of you that haven't read the first part... Please do, or you'll be so, so lost.

Darcy idly wondered if the distressed werewolf would leap across the desk and attempt to throttle her. She honestly couldn’t blame him if he tried.

“Two science credits,” her advisor begged. “Just choose from these options and then I’ll never have to see you again.”

“I don’t want to take any of these classes!” Darcy argued. “Professor Marks is an _asshole_ who harrasses his female students, Fisher has a hate-on for anyone with magic, and no one else offers dual credit!”

Ben dropped his head into his hands, distraught. Having an angry spark in his office was hell on his nerves. His Alpha spent the entire semester lecturing him on proper protocol, ordering him to give her _anything_ she required.

Ben was not emotionally stable enough for this shit.

To make matters worse, the spark was some sort of genius. She enrolled with over half her degree already completed, then decided to dual major in political science and engineering. Political science he understood well enough. As arbiters of peace, sparks should definitely have a knowledge of politics. If she’d left it at that, he would have been _fine_. Help the spark with her classes, send her on her way, avoid any and all major mental breakdowns.

But no. She discovered Culver’s advanced degree program that would award her a Master’s degree in political science through a selection of accelerated classes. Which meant that somehow, in the chaos of managing her schedule and hundreds of others, the spark’s required advanced science credits slipped through the cracks.

Now she was _here_ , waving her hands around in his small office, generally existing as a _ticking_ _time bomb_ of boundless power. Ben pressed clammy hands to his face.

“Dude. Are you gonna cry?” Darcy peered closer at the skinny ‘wolf, glanced over her shoulder to make sure her wards against eavesdroppers were holding. “Because that was not my intention.”

“I am not going to cry,” Ben said, mostly to himself.

“Oh, good,” Darcy sighed in relief. “I don’t do well with tears.”

Ben glowered down at his desk. And then an idea occurred to him. A brilliant idea. One that would send this terrifying spark _far_ _away_ _from him_. So far away. Hope flickered. “There is another possibility.”

Darcy brightened. “What is it?”

“One of the professors, an astrophysicist, is offering an internship. It’s a little outside your requirements, but I think I can make it work.” By god, he would fight the dean himself to make it work. “You’ll have to meet with her personally to apply, though.”

“Astrophysicist?” Darcy asked, baffled. “That’s like… way outside of my accepted science courses. I don’t know shit about astrophysics.”

“It will get you your last six credits and then you’ll graduate,” Ben said. _‘And leave_ ,’ was heavily implied. He saw a flash of ink across her skin and felt faint. “You don’t have any other classes left to take,” he told her. “Which means you’d be a great candidate for the internship.”

“Why?”

“Well,” Ben hedged. “It’s in New Mexico.”

“Oh,” Darcy said, sitting back in the uncomfortable chair. “That’s… actually, that’s really convenient.” Virginia sucked. Surely New Mexico couldn’t be any worse. Plus, she’d be _much_ closer to home.

“Yes,” Ben said encouragingly. He hurriedly wrote down the astrophysicist’s office number and shoved the paper into the spark’s hand. “Her name is Dr. Jane Foster, her office is in the Kepler Building. She leaves next week. You should go now. To talk to her,” he added hastily.

“Okay, okay.” Darcy could take a hint. “I’ll go see her.” The door closed behind her. Ben collapsed in relief, nerves frayed.

Darcy squinted down at the paper, wrinkled her nose at the illegible writing. “Alright, Dr. Foster, whoever you are. You’re my only hope.” She wandered across campus, eventually finding the Kepler Building. She somehow found the correct office in the maze of a building. Darcy knocked on the open door.

“Dr. Foster? My name is Darcy Lewis, I’m here for the internship....” Darcy trailed off in shock when the woman looked up. Darcy’s spark hummed in warning, for a very good reason.

The Seelie Queen’s daughter stared back at Darcy, equally surprised and wary.

“Holy shit,” Darcy said in disbelief. Dr. Foster sat frozen in place at her desk, looking for all the world like a startled baby deer. Some unknown part of Darcy recognized the aura of power around the slim Fae, connected it to her memory of the Seelie Queen’s wicked magic.

“Well. This is… um.” Darcy cleared her throat. There was a heavy beat of silence. “Awkward,” Darcy finally decided. “This is definitely awkward.”

“Uh huh,” Dr. Foster said faintly. There was a surge of energy, swirling in a dizzying cocoon around the other woman. Darcy blinked to clear her eyes. Dr. Foster looked like she was deciding whether to bolt. Which was not allowed to happen, Darcy decided. She needed those fucking science credits.

“So!” Darcy said loudly, breaking some of the tension. She plopped into the chair across from Dr. Foster, holding her breath when it tilted dangerously. When Darcy didn’t end up in a heap on the floor, she continued. “I didn’t expect you to be Fae, obviously-”

“Half Fae,” the scientist interrupted. “My dad was human.”

‘Was,’ Darcy noted. And, judging by the curl of Dr. Foster’s lip, she wasn’t exactly proud of her Fae heritage.

Darcy respected that.

“Half-Fae, sorry. I came here to ask you- wait, hang on, how did I not _feel_ you?” She gestured at the general aura around the _Seelie Queen’s daughter_ , holy fuck.

“My glamour is very strong,” Dr. Foster said stiffly.

“Um, _yeah_ it is. I didn’t have any idea you were on campus until I walked in here. I should have been able to feel you like, a state away,” Darcy told her, slightly concerned. If Fae could slip past Darcy without her knowledge… She shook off her paranoia and refocused.

“The interview!”

Dr. Foster looked confused. “I don’t… What interview?”

“For the internship. In New Mexico,” Darcy provided helpfully.

“You’re applying for my internship,” Dr. Foster said flatly.

“Yes. I mean, I know this is a little weird but I promise, no ulterior motives here!” Darcy smiled widely, trying to project earnestness. “I’m just a political science major who tried to dodge my science requirements for four years and it finally caught up to me,” she said cheerfully. “I’m supposed to graduate next semester and my advisor kicked me out of his office for refusing every other science course. He told me to come here. Imagine my surprise when you turned out to be Fae.”

“Half Fae,” Jane reiterated. “And I was hardly expecting a spark to show up at my door,” she said dryly. She’d recovered well from her surprise, but remained unnaturally still, brown eyes wary. “You are also very well concealed.”

“No one’s ever happy to see me,” Darcy grumbled. “I have to hide, or else I’d be terrorizing a campus full of supernatural creatures.” She sighed when Dr. Foster looked unmoved. “Look, I swear, I’m just a normal student begging you to consider my application so I can finally graduate. Please. I’m good with computers, and math, and even better with machines. I have a letter of recommendation, from my mentor.” Darcy fished Sophia’s letter from her bag. “I can fetch your coffee and food and stay totally out of your way.”

Dr. Foster watched her quietly for a moment. “Leave the letter and application with me. I’ll… I’ll think about it.”

Well, that was more than Darcy could hope for after realizing who, exactly, was sitting in front of her. Darcy tugged her resume/CV out of her bag, handing it over with a hopeful smile. Dr. Foster gingerly accepted it, nodding uncomfortably at Darcy. Recognizing a dismissal when she saw one, Darcy edged backwards out the door and trudged outside.

“Well, fuck.”

Darcy tried to breathe through the low thrum of panic still buzzing in her head from the encounter. She fished her phone out of her bag and called Naomi.  

"Darcy," Naomi greeted. "Get your science credits worked out yet?" Darcy listened to the soothing crash of waves in the background, envisioned herself back at Naomi's house, safe and peaceful and _nowhere near a goddamned Fae princess_.  

"Yes. No. Sort of." Darcy tugged her bag over her shoulder and stalked towards her apartment. "I interviewed with someone for an internship just now."  

"That's good," Naomi said distractedly.  

"No, that is _not_ good," Darcy hissed, the panic breaking free. "Because the professor is the Seelie Queen's daughter."  

Naomi choked on her tea. "She's _what_?!"

"She's the-"

"No, yeah, I heard you." Naomi paused to wipe uselessly at the tea spilled down her shirt. "How do you know? Did she threaten you?"  

"No," Darcy said. "She looked at surprised as I was, to be honest. But she was so well hidden I didn't even know who she was until I walked into the room." 

"Shit."

"Shit," Darcy echoed in agreement.

"How sure are you that's who she is? She could just be another powerful Fae."  

"I remember the feel of the Seelie Queen's magic," Darcy said, shivering with the memory of the Fae realm. "Dr. Foster's magic feels the same. Or almost the same, I guess. Sort of like, she has some of the Queen's magic but it's different? Ugh. That doesn't make any sense."

"It doesn't," Naomi said, amused. "But I think I get what you're trying to say."

"What do I do?" Darcy moaned.  

"Well," Naomi said thoughtfully. "If she is who you say she is, then it's doubtful she'd want a spark for her intern. Especially one that's royally pissed off her mother."

"She's half-Fae, evidently. But when one half is the damned Queen..."

"That makes for a very powerful person," Naomi finished. "And on the off chance that the Queen doesn't give her daughter orders, she most definitely isn't going to want to draw attention to herself by taking you on. Sorry, kid."

Darcy resigned herself to classes taught by either a misogynist or a magic-hater. Either way, it was going to be a shit semester.  

~*~

To Darcy’s utter astonishment, a brief email from her advisor appeared in her inbox three days later.

 

Miss Lewis,

You’ve been accepted for the internship position under Dr. Jane Foster. She is copied on this email. You will contact her directly regarding travel plans. As this is the only requirement left for you to graduate, I’ve ensured that all of your other credits are correctly applied.

Ben

 

“Thanks, Ben. Why don’t you just say ‘don’t fuck it up?’” She muttered. Her inbox pinged with another email.

 

Miss Lewis,

I’ve attached the travel information below. The grant will cover the flight for us both. I have your ticket.

Dr. Foster

 

Darcy mentally resigned herself to suffocating heat and a cranky, suspicious Fae for the next semester. She sighed heavily, chugged her coffee, and went to pack.

Darcy made a face at the stack of boxes by the door of her small off-campus apartment. She sent her ex another text, reminding him to stop by and pick them up.

24 hours, she told herself. 24 hours and then she’d set the whole damn stack on fire. “Stupid, lying, cheating werewolves,” Darcy griped, yanking clothes from her closet and throwing them onto her bed. “Oh, of course I love you, Darcy! So much that you should join my pack! We can be one big happy family, you, me, my other girlfriend.”

Darcy took a deep breath and recentered herself. “I knew better,” she told herself. Still, a part of her ached. She would never have a normal relationship. Being a spark meant everyone had _ulterior_ ulterior motives. Did the werewolf actually want to date you, or did he just want to try and make you join his pack in a ploy for power? Did the half-Fae in the bar really want to make out, or was he yet another of the Seelie Queen’s minions sent to kill her?

And humans. She scoffed to herself, dragging a dusty suitcase from underneath her bed. Humans wanted to know why you could never stay the night (nightmares), why that guy straight up ran away from her (previous territory dispute, handled with minimal violence, she’d thought), why they couldn’t meet her family (see: _werewolves_ ).

Darcy learned. She kept her relationships brief and impersonal- hookups, flings, never anything lasting. This time, though... Well. She’d thought this time was different. Hoped it was true too much to see the signs.

A text from Erica pulled Darcy from her thoughts. She smiled down at the selfie of Erica and Boyd, their faces pressed together, eyes squeezed shut to prevent the eye flare. ‘1 more yr!!!!!’

‘Thought of a name for your store yet?’ Darcy sent back.

‘OUR store’

‘And no not yet. boyd keeps shooting my ideas down but won’t make any of his own suggestions’

‘Not sure our relationship will survive this’

Darcy laughed at the influx of messages. If Darcy believed in soulmates, Boyd and Erica would be proof. She knew Boyd planned to propose after college, once they’d started the business. She _also_ knew that Erica had her own plans about proposing, so who knew which one of them would make their move first.

Darcy had money on Erica. The Hale pack betting pool currently sat at $1000. Darcy was going to _win_ it. Mainly for bragging rights.

She spent the day packing, boxing up the rest of her apartment to send back to New York. Darcy didn’t know exactly where she’d go after graduation, but since the Hales owned an entire apartment building in Iron Heights- the budding supernatural neighborhood in New York City- Darcy figured she’d appropriate one of the empty lofts and figure it out from there. For now, though... She glanced at the clock and sighed. For now she had to work.

~*~ 

"So let me get this straight," Darcy said, rubbing two fingers between her eyes in a vain attempt to stave off the building migraine. "Your family-" she pointed to the group on the left, brimming with righteous indignation- "is mad that they stole an old family relic sixty-odd years ago."  

"And you-" the second group straightened hurriedly under her attention- "are angry that the Harvills accused you of doing so, even though you bragged about taking it. Loudly. For years." The man holding the fox horn scowled and clutched the item closer to his chest.

"Look," Darcy said, exasperated. "I'm not interested in your family feud or whatever this is. _My_ concern is that two werewolf packs are fighting about this _all over town_. One of you shifted in the grocery store yesterday over this! Does the statute of secrecy mean nothing to any of you?"  

Guilty mumbling.

"So we get the horn back?" A Harvill 'wolf asked hopefully.

"No," Darcy said. "Because _your_ family stole it, too. Everyone, meet Vanessa Mariana." Darcy gestured to the vampire- her scent warded carefully from the 'wolves- standing at her side. "She's a museum curator I contacted after hearing about the item you're fighting over."  

"The horn you're holding belonged to ex-Governor Cobb of Shelby," Vanessa explained patiently, clasping manicured hands in front of her. "He was elected Governor of Alabama in 1878. This horn was passed down through his family for generations until it disappeared sixty three years ago." The Harvill werewolf pack looked somewhat contrite, to their credit.   

"She's just gonna take it?" The werewolf holding the horn asked, looking at her with wounded eyes. Both packs bristled.

Darcy reminded herself that she was a peacemaker, whether that meant fighting extremist hunters or settling the differences between two redneck werewolf packs. And peacemakers didn't punch werewolves in the middle of negotiations, no matter how stupid or infuriating they may be.

"Actually, your families are going to thoughtfully _give it_ to the museum. They will credit the both of you with an article in the paper expressing the museum's gratitude for each of your family's roles in discovering this artifact." Darcy bit back a smile at the flare of interest from both packs.  

A little small-town fame, bragging rights, and solidarity would go a long way towards soothing their bruised egos.

"I guess that's fair," a Harvill 'wolf hedged. Others nodded hesitantly behind him.

"Excellent." Darcy stepped over to accept the fox horn and handed it off to Vanessa immediately. "Vanessa will send you both a copy of the article when it's finished. In the meantime, stop fucking shifting in public. That includes growling, flashing your eyes, or using your claws to open a pack of hot dogs in the grocery store. Got it?" Nods all around.

Vanessa heroically suppressed a laugh, maintaining her composure until they were back on the highway in her sleek sports car. "That was-"  

"Don't start," Darcy groaned. She pressed her hands to her face and slumped down in the passenger seat. "I hate Virginia. So much."

"Well," Vanessa said, pressing her lips together to hold back a smile, "you don't have much longer until you graduate, right?" She rolled her eyes at Darcy's wary glance. "Please. Everyone knew when you moved across the country from the Hales. As for me, I just like to keep track of the power brokers on my continent."  

"'Power brokers'?" Darcy asked, amused.

"Laugh all you'd like, Lewis. I'm just telling you how it is." Vanessa turned onto the road to Darcy's apartment. "That was incredibly entertaining. Give me a call if you ever have to do it again."

Darcy rested her hand on the door handle and cocked an eyebrow at the vampire. "You mean the next time I have to appropriate stolen historical items and smack some werewolves around?"

"Both things bring me great joy," Vanessa said with a sharp grin.

Darcy laughed. "Yeah, all right. I'll keep you in mind. Thanks for the ride."

"See ya around, Lewis." Vanessa sped off.   

Tired, amused despite herself, Darcy started up the stairs to her apartment. Halfway there, her phone rang. "Julian," she said evenly. "Quit hovering."  

"Excuse me for worrying about you," Julian grumbled. Darcy heard the sounds of Julian's club in the background, pictured him pacing anxiously because he was too far away to help when she'd called.  

She unlocked the door to her apartment and locked it behind her, pressing her phone between her ear and shoulder. "It went fine. Your super hot vampire friend didn't try to kill me, and I'm now safely back home."  

"I didn't think she'd try to kill you," he protested. "She just doesn't really like... well, anyone, to be honest."  

"Really? We got along great," Darcy told him.  

There was a brief pause. "I suddenly feel as though I've made a mistake, introducing the two of you."  

Darcy laughed. "Drama queen." She opened her nearly empty fridge and scowled. "I gotta go, I have to order a pizza for dinner."

"Put off grocery shopping again?" Julian asked.  

"You know I hate it."

"I do know, because you call me to complain every time you go." Darcy could hear the smile in his voice, so she knew he wasn't actually annoyed.

"Expect a call tomorrow, then," Darcy said cheerfully. "Bye!"

Darcy ordered her pizza and collected her laptop while she waited, trying not to let the overwhelming quiet of the apartment suffocate her. She honestly couldn't say she loved college. Liked to learn, sure. But being alone after years of living with a pack of werewolves? Darcy hated it.

She called Stiles. 

"Hey, Darce," Stiles said. "Finish the meeting already?"  

"Went pretty well, all things considered. You'd be interested to know that Julian's friend was both hot and scary."

"Just my type," Stiles said with a laugh.

"Uh huh. How is Derek, anyway?"

Stiles muttered something under his breath. Darcy smiled wryly down at her computer, missing them all fiercely. "Anyway, I was calling to let you know that I'm updating our database."

"Yeah?" Stiles asked, interested. "Anything important?"

"Not really," Darcy admitted. She logged onto their personal database, encrypted and unknown to anyone else other than the two sparks and Lydia.

Darcy started it her first year at Culver as a way to put what she knew on paper. From there, she, Stiles, and Lydia could keep track of the important players in the supernatural world, trace family ties and alliances, monitor their views and beliefs.

Darcy would not be taken by surprise again.

"I added a couple notes on the local djinn last night," Stiles told her as he shuffled through a textbook.

"Did you meet them?" Darcy asked, surprised and concerned.

"Nah, Julian dragged me out of the dorms for dinner." Stiles received a full ride from NYU. As a freshman, he was required to stay in the dorms. But Darcy knew Derek had already set aside an apartment for the other spark, quietly waiting for the right moment to offer.  

Julian extended the same offer to Stiles that he did to Darcy almost immediately upon Stiles's arrival in New York. They got along like a house of fire, much to Derek's displeasure.

"Oh, hey, Lyds is calling me. Hang on, I'll merge the calls."

Darcy waited patiently while Stiles fumbled through the process of connecting the calls. "How were the redneck werewolves?" Lydia asked once they'd connected, amused.

"Redneck," Darcy said flatly. "And what about you? Have you taken over MIT yet?"

"Soon," Lydia assured her.

"I hate being split up," Stiles griped. "Everyone's so far away."

"At least you have Derek and Laura," Darcy told him. "I'm all alone out here, in country bumpkin hell." Stiles laughed.

"You brought it on yourself for choosing Culver,” Lydia reminded her.

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Darcy sighed. She curled up under a blanket and let her friends’ voices chase away the terrible emptiness.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think this story will have shorter chapters but faster updates.. Later parts will probably go back to the long chapters, but for now I'm doing the Thor arc in shorter pieces. 
> 
> Jane & Darcy weren't exactly BFFs in the first Thor, and they won't be at the start of this, either. That said, know that I love both characters and will not be hating on Jane to make Darcy better in this (I know some writers do with this pairing, but c'mon. How can you not love Jane's tenacity and absolute faith in a world outside of ours? My bi, space-loving heart can't take it). 
> 
> As always, thank you for your support! Thor comes in the next chapter, so prepare for chaos.

Darcy fielded increasingly distressed phone calls from Peter the morning she was supposed to leave Virginia. She stood patiently by the boarding gate, only half-listening to his passionate arguments while keeping an eye out for Dr. Foster. She’d made a point not to tell her family about who the astrophysicist really was, because they would collectively lose their minds. The Hales took overprotective to the extreme.

“Child, what could possibly interest you in _New Mexico_? Heat and dirt, that’s all there is to it.” He said it with such disdain that she couldn’t help but laugh. Peter still pushed for online classes during her last semester so she could come home.

“How about a degree or three? This is sort of my last chance here. I’m pretty sure if I don’t get these credits and finally graduate, my advisor is going to snap and kill me. Besides, it’s closer to home and the desert’s not that bad.” Darcy pulled the phone away from her ear as he talked over her, describing in detail the horrific wildlife the desert had to offer.

She fired off a text to the Hale & Chris group message- _Please god someone take his phone away-_ and grinned when his outraged shout came through the speaker.

“-because I care for you, and what do I get in return? Sass, that’s-” Darcy looked up to see Dr. Foster stomping into the terminal. The astrophysicist hauled an impressively large bag behind her and was clutching her coffee cup like a lifeline.  

“Peter, I have to go now. Yes, I _know_ you hate the desert. Yes, I brought moisturizer. I’ll call you when we land, okay? I’ll be fine. _No_ , you are not coming to get me. Peter!” There was a brief scuffle and a breathless Laura came on the line.

“Don’t worry, Darce, we got him. Go have fun playing in the sand and call us if you need anything! Love ya, kid!” Someone squawked in the background and Darcy heard playful growls as she hung up. At least, she thought they were playful. God only knew with the Hales, she thought affectionately.

Dr. Foster caught sight of her and stalked over. Darcy tried to look as harmless as possible. Dr. Foster only grunted a hello and went to argue with the poor soul at the counter over the size of her bag.

While they debated the carry-on limits, Darcy took the opportunity to activate a rune on her arm. She’d used it before, once during the particularly terrifying trip to the Fae realm, to see through the glamor cast by the Fae. Darcy swallowed hard when the rune activated and Jane’s glamor faded to reveal her true form.

The half-Fae's body was small, fragile-boned- almost delicate. The power barely contained in her body was anything but. The magic of a dying star spilled out of her, otherworldly and ethereal. Constellations sprinkled over flawless skin, orbiting aimlessly across the bared skin Darcy could see. Thick hair fell to her shoulders, possessing a sky’s worth of stars within its length; Darcy could only stare in awe.

Dr. Foster turned, reigning victorious in the argument. Darcy’s face went slack when their gazes met. The Fae’s eyes held galaxies within their depths, secrets to the universe concealed within that Darcy could never hope to comprehend.

Dr. Foster narrowed those cosmic eyes at Darcy, correctly identifying the source of the spark’s amazement. “Stop it,” she said irritably. Darcy obeyed, choking off the power to the rune.

“I’ve never seen anything like that,” Darcy breathed. Dr. Foster just growled at her and stomped off to the boarding gate. Darcy followed, feeling a little shell-shocked.

The flight was uncomfortable, to say the least. Dr. Foster was obviously not thrilled to have a spark as her intern, much less being stuck on a plane next to one. Darcy knew all too well the sort of reputation sparks had, and she was certainly one of the more notorious.

It begged the question, though, of why Dr. Foster accepted her application in the first place.

The lab space turned out to be nothing more than an old gas station. Darcy found herself reluctantly charmed by it after days and weeks of learning how to operate Dr. Foster’s equipment. She liked the visibility provided by the windows, and the roof quickly became her favorite place to escape when Dr. Foster’s aloofness got to be too much.

Darcy knew that her experience with the Hales was an exception in the supernatural world. It was a whole other thing to watch people blanch and run at the sight of her. Darcy felt stupid admitting it, even just to herself, but she was _lonely_. She’d spent the last half of her life with a pack of werewolves, for fuck’s sake. Darcy was lonely in a way she hadn’t ever been before, longing for the wolves and their tactile ways. An easy kiss pressed to the top of her head, an arm over her shoulder, a hug tight enough to steal her breath away.

Darcy found herself staring at her phone a lot on those long, lonely days. Wanting to reach out to someone, to talk to her family, anything other than Dr. Foster’s suspicious stares and long silences.

Dr. Foster never used her power that Darcy could see, other than the glamor to keep her true form hidden. This meant that, despite her best efforts, Darcy still didn’t know the extent of the half-Fae’s power. She spent a lot of time staring at the sky, marveling at the similarities to the cosmos lurking beneath Dr. Foster’s skin.

Out of boredom- and to burn off some of the excess energy buzzing under her skin- Darcy studied the stars, the constellations, the night sky. She sat on the roof night after night, copying the twinkling lights above with her power until she stood within a sky of her own making, small dots of her magic burning around her as brightly as the stars above. Darcy came to love walking through the replica- learned to enjoy using her spark for something so mundane. Sometimes Darcy forgot to appreciate the wonder that was her magic. It certainly helped distract Darcy from the emptiness around her.

So she’d sit under a blanket of stars, surrounded by those of her own making, and just try to breathe.

~*~

Darcy maintained a cheerful demeanor with Dr. Foster, resupplying her coffee without asking and waving food under her nose until hunger outweighed the physics. She kept pages and pages of equations and data in order and fiddled cautiously with Dr. Foster’s incredibly temperamental machines.

She couldn’t help but be impressed that nothing had blown up yet. Jane was brilliant, but her specialty was undoubtedly physics and astronomy. For the sake of the world, she should stay away from machinery, especially the kind she built herself. Darcy learned fast, asked a lot of questions so maybe one day she’d figure out what the fuck these machines even did, and did her best to maintain them in the meantime.

For her part, Jane watched Darcy warily out of the corner of her eye. She noted the other woman’s tendency to end up on the roof, staring at the sky with a forlorn expression that resonated with Jane on a deeply personal level.

She almost told Darcy to not waste her energy on the glamour hiding her tattoos, as she could see them anyway. Jane’s power ripped right through any glamor, regardless of who the person was or which realm she was in. After all, Fae specialize in glamour. Darcy’s own power was- according to the Fae Queens- an indirect, convoluted descendant of the early Fae. Or at least, that’s what the Fae Queens had decided so they could sentence sparks to a slow, horrible death.

Jane often wondered when the Queens’ greed would catch up to them. No one knew for certain where a spark’s power came from, not even the Fae. But the Fae, Jane thought bitterly, claimed ownership of anything they desired. Gates, power, souls. People.

Jane had been warned, of course, about sparks. How easily a spark could lose themselves to all that raw power, let it burn the way it wanted to burn, without discrimination for friend or foe. She had a hard time reconciling that knowledge with the young woman who had walked into a door frame this morning, or who created tiny, glowing stars to dance on the rooftop when she was bored. Or the girl who, Jane suspected, fiddled with her equations when she thought Jane wasn’t paying attention.

And who brought her coffee. Jane’s head turned instinctively towards the smell. Darcy stood next to her desk and wiggled a styrofoam cup in her direction. Jane tugged it out of her grip, telling herself that she was _not_ charmed by the drawing on the side of the cup. Darcy gifted it with a tiny thread of her power, just enough to send the little UFO careening wildly around the cup. The little alien drawn crudely inside the ship had a manic grin. Darcy saw her bite down on a smile, though, and grinned at her.

“Oh, I’ll win you over, Janie. One cup of coffee at a time.”

“Go threaten someone else.”

“Yes, boss.”

Darcy fiddled with the machines more that night, murmuring quiet pleas to not blow up in her face, thank you, she was here to help. She gave up around 2 a.m. and crashed on the lab couch, as she did whenever the trip back to town seemed too exhausting. She’d taken a little from her savings and rented a tiny one bedroom apartment nearby. Jane stayed in the RV, and though there was enough space, Darcy didn’t want to make the Fae more uncomfortable with her presence.

She woke to the smell of coffee the next morning and saw a full mug resting on the table beside her. Darcy nearly fell off the couch in surprise. Jane deliberately ignored her from across the room, reading the data reports from the previous night. Darcy sent aggressively happy thoughts Jane’s way as she sipped her coffee.

Of course, the good feelings only lasted until the machine Darcy had been tinkering with began to smoke. Jane yelped, darting over to it. Darcy stood at a safe distance, helpfully pointing out what not to touch. Jane eventually gave up and yanked the power in frustration. She turned to Darcy.

“Fix it,” Jane demanded, stabbing a finger at the smoking pile of metal beside her. Darcy eyed it warily.

“I’ve really just been trying to keep it functional,” Darcy admitted. “I don’t know enough about this machine or its purpose to fix the major problems.”  

“I’ll walk you through it,” Jane said. “I noticed some of the changes you made; they were acceptable.”

‘ _Fuck off_ ,’ Darcy thought, annoyed. She’d worked her ass off to get that far with the baffling machinery.

“But you can’t use magic with these,” Jane said somewhat wildly. “It’ll affect the readings and ruin the data reports.” She brushed her hair away from her face impatiently.

Darcy waved her hands in denial. “I’m not magically fixing any of the machines! I’m just.. tweaking them every now and then. But not magically,” she said hurriedly when Jane narrowed her eyes. The metal piece of junk belched smoke in random intervals behind her. “I’ll take a look at it,” she finished meekly.

She tugged aside the main panel, which Darcy hadn’t gotten her hands on yet. Darcy gaped at the mess of wires inside. “Jesus, are those rubber bands? And duct tape? Oh my god, tell me that isn’t a paperclip holding those wires together.”

“It was all I had on hand at the time,” Jane said defensively. Darcy peered further and sent Jane an incredulous stare. Jane huffed and pointed. “I needed it to-“

“No, yeah, I see why,” Darcy said, studying the machine again. “Nothing about this makes sense, how it’s built, but it still works.” The machine coughed smoke into her face. “Well. Mostly works.” She rubbed the side of the machine soothingly. “Don’t worry, I won’t let the crazy lady near you ever again,” Darcy crooned.

She barely dodged the wrench in time.

They worked in tandem for a couple hours. Darcy had Jane explain the machine’s purpose to her in small words- “ _Smaller_ words, Jane”- so she could have a basic idea of what the hell this thing was. By the time she was done, they were both covered in grease and oil and Jane’s flannel had met a horrible, fiery death, but the Dimensional Relay Detection Array was fully functional. Whatever the fuck that was.

Darcy was amazed at what Jane had compiled to create this machine. The ingenuity was clear, but Darcy wasn’t sure what Jane wanted and the data she got were the same. Still, it was brilliant. Sophia would have been impressed.

Darcy looked at Jane, slumped over in a singed tank top and jeans. “When you take over the world, can I still be your loyal minion?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Jane tugged the panel closed, patting the machine affectionately. Darcy thought that was all she’d say, but the corner of Jane’s mouth tilted up. “You’ll be my trusty sidekick in all matters of world domination.”

“What every girl dreams of,” Darcy sighed. She eyed the Fae. “So, are we goin’ the supervillain route in these domination plans?”

“I haven’t decided yet,” Jane sniffed. But she was smiling now, the first unguarded expression Darcy had seen from her since they’d gotten to New Mexico. It felt like progress.

~*~

By some stroke of luck, Darcy and Jane were only a few feet apart when the Fae burst into the lab two days later. It meant Darcy had time to shield them both against the shards of ice that appeared out of thin air, shaped like daggers and spinning towards them.

Darcy stumbled back behind the desk, bumping into Jane on her way to cover. “What the hell?” Darcy asked, wincing at the burst of cold air that battered against her shield. Her bones felt brittle with the cold.

Low growling echoed through the hollow spaces of the lab, sending a shiver down Darcy’s spine. “Don’t let the ice touch you,” Jane ordered from beside her.

“Or what?” Darcy asked warily, gritting her teeth at another gust of the icy wind. She watched an unprotected chair freeze over and shatter into pieces outside the shield.

“Instant frostbite, frozen in place, or the cold will just stop your heart immediately,” Jane listed. “Winter Fae are lethal.”

“No shit,” Darcy muttered. She longingly eyed her staff across the room. “They’re here for me.” Darcy wondered whether the Seelie Queen’s daughter would intervene in this assassination attempt. Would she help, to gain favor with her temperamental (aka _bat-shit crazy_ ) mother?

Jane surprised her by snorting a laugh. “I think this is a two birds, one stone sort of deal.”

Darcy did a double take, turning to gape at the astrophysicist. “Sorry, what was that?”

“Never mind. Just hold your shield no matter what, okay?” Jane said, inching closer to the spark’s humming magic. Darcy blinked as the woman’s form wavered with her flickering glamour. “Darcy.”

“Yeah, okay. I got it, Doc.” She watched, wary, as Jane took a deep breath. Darcy sucked in a breath against the cold and gripped the desk tightly as she focused on strengthening her shield. The tree tattoo on Darcy’s back felt comfortingly warm as she funneled her power through it, not wanting to risk a slip up without her anchor.

Darcy barely restrained from shouting in alarm when the room went up in flames. She turned half of her focus to her shield, holding it firmly in place. The other half of her focus went to the searing heat outside the dome of magic, to the flames licking the walls and scorching the tiles. Darcy heard faint shrieking outside of the shield as the Winter Fae were surrounded by the blaze.

She stared at Jane, wide-eyed. Jane stood utterly still behind the shield. Darcy glanced away as the flames closed in on them, herding the Winter Fae closer.

Darcy almost dropped her shield in pure shock when the air shimmered in front of Jane, on the other side of the shield. Jane pressed her palms tightly together and then spread them apart.

A Fae gate opened outside the shield, created in a matter of minutes by Jane.

Heart pounding, Darcy watched as the flames surged closer. The Fae shrieked and hissed, but ultimately chose to return empty-handed to the Fae Realm than continue to face the Seelie Queen’s daughter. Jane closed the gate a split second after the three Fae vanished, sealing the entrance with a flick of her fingers.

The flames disappeared. Darcy dropped her shield, stunned, and stared around the unaffected lab. There was nothing to suggest that the room had been burning only seconds ago.

“It was an illusion,” Jane said tiredly as she lowered herself onto the couch.

Darcy whirled to face her. “The fire? _You_ did that?”

Jane shrugged. “It’s basically glamor.” She noticed Darcy’s incredulous expression. “I’m... very good with glamor.”

“And did you... did you just open a Fae gate?” Darcy asked weakly, resting her hands on the desk to keep from falling over.

“It’s closed and gone now,” Jane said reassuringly.

“But you created one and opened it. I didn’t think that was _possible_.”

“It’s not, for anyone else.”

“Even the Queen?” Darcy asked.

“No. Why do you think she hates me so much?”

Darcy gave up and sat cross-legged on the floor, pressing her hands to her face. “I didn’t know she _did_ hate you.”

“More than you, probably.” Jane tipped back onto the couch and went boneless.

“I... Wow. That is a lot of hate.” Darcy squinted over at the half-Fae. “Okay, I’ll bite. Why does she hate you?”

“She wants my power, I refuse to join or open gates for her, I’m strong enough to defy her. Take your pick.”

“But she’s your mother,” Darcy said, confused. “Not that I ever expected her to be a good parent or anything but there’s no like... family loyalty here?”

Jane snorted and shot Darcy a disbelieving look. “ _Family loyalty_? She’s the Fae Queen. She’d rather kill me and strip the power from my bones than admit I’m related to her.” Jane shook her head at the expression on Darcy’s face. “She enthralled my dad,” Jane said quietly. “And showed up months later with a baby. He saw me and managed to break the enthrallment enough to take me and escape the Underhill. I was raised by him in this realm.”

“Oh,” Darcy said quietly. “So I guess you aren’t waiting to kill me in my sleep or turn me over to the Seelie Queen, then?”

Jane stared at her, open mouthed. “ _No_.” She swiped a hand across her face, reluctantly amused. “I guess you’re not biding your time to do the same?”  

“That’s a hard no. You’re responsible for my final grade, technically, and I definitely don’t want to risk that,” Darcy said, only sort of joking. “We probably should have talked all this through a little more, though.”

“I’d heard of you before you showed up at my office,” Jane admitted. “I thought you came to confront me.”

“Nope, just to beg for the internship.” Darcy leaned back on her elbows and studied Jane. “Why did you accept my application, anyway? Especially if you thought I was going to try to hurt you.”

“You were the only applicant. I was pretty desperate.” Jane grinned at Darcy’s offended expression. “Besides, it’s harder to explain away that-” she waved a hand at the still-frozen areas of the room- “to a human intern. At the very least I could count on you not passing out if my mother sent another Fae after me.”

“She does this often?”

“Yeah,” Jane sighed. “I think she’s afraid I might try to challenge her one day.”

Darcy cocked her head. “You’re powerful enough that the Seelie Queen sees you as a threat?” Jane shrugged again. “Huh. Interesting.”

“Interesting?” Jane asked skeptically.  

“Yeah, here’s the thing.” Darcy climbed to her feet. “You’re mother is insane. Homicidal. Vicious. Has an inhuman thirst for violence and pain.”

“Most of the Fae courts are that way,” Jane said. She narrowed her eyes at Darcy’s considering stare.

“Yeah, well, your mom is the worst. And she hates you, and you hate her, so.” Darcy thought a little more, then nodded. “I’d like to offer an alliance. The enemy of your enemy and all that.”

Jane just blinked at her, stunned into silence. “We worked together pretty well, I think,” Darcy continued, sensing she’d need to do a little convincing. “It’s safer to deal with this with someone watching your back, anyway. I can provide cover and wards and more, and you can drop their asses right back into the Fae realm with that super terrifying trick of yours.” Jane still looked uncertain. “Plus, it’d _really_ piss your mom off if we were officially allies.”

Jane bit down on a smile at that.

Darcy stopped talking and let her think it over, moving across the room to check on her staff. She gripped the smooth wood tightly, studying it closely for any damage. “If those fuckers froze my staff...” she muttered under her breath as she worked. Relieved when she found no lasting damage- the tip of the staff just slightly iced over- Darcy set it aside and collected a stack of data reports from the latest print-outs. She sat on the small table in front of the couch and handed Jane the reports.

“So?” Darcy tried not to fidget under Jane’s steady gaze.

Finally, Jane nodded. “You have a deal.”

They shook on it, and Darcy swore she could hear angry screeching on the wind outside.

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Super early update!

“Darcy, when did this data set print?” Jane stared down at the page, her heart pounding.

“Uh, a couple hours ago maybe? Why?” Darcy looked away from the program she was coding for Jane’s plethora of atmospheric data and blinked to clear her eyes of the dancing numbers and symbols still in her vision. Coding was exhausting.

“I need to call Erik,” Jane mumbled, already moving away. “This is... I think this is it. I think I have it.” She looked up and around the lab, almost dazed.

“Call who? Jane?” Darcy asked, a little concerned. “What do you have?”

“Proof,” Jane said, and darted off to find her cell phone.

“Proof of _what_?” Darcy yelled after her. She glanced down at Jane’s phone on the desk and went to find the Fae with a roll of her eyes.

Erik Selvig was so obviously unaware of Jane’s heritage that Darcy could only stare at him- and Jane- in disbelief. Jane had informed Darcy before he arrived, of course, that Erik knew nothing of the supernatural world. But Erik treated Jane more like a daughter than a former student; Darcy would have expected him to know _something_.

And maybe he was just aware enough of Jane’s almost inhuman drive and hunger for answers to know Jane wasn’t entirely normal. But his obvious skepticism of Jane’s theories grated on Darcy’s nerves. She watched the relentless Fae wilt a little in the face of her mentor’s near-dismissal of her work.

“Where’s your faith, dude?” Darcy asked one night after listening to him shoot down Jane’s ideas yet again.

Erik spared her a glance. “I’m a scientist.”

“So’s Jane,” Darcy pointed out. Jane stared at Darcy as if she didn’t understand what the spark was doing.

“There’s no _evidence_ , no real backing to these theories, or these readings,” Erik argued. He waved the data sets at her.

“Ever heard that saying about not seeing the forest for the trees?” Darcy asked, smiling sharply. At the very least, Jane was her ally; Darcy figured the woman could use someone in her corner. “You don’t think there’s more to this-” she waved a hand lazily around the room- “or even to us?” She finished slyly. Darcy ignored Jane’s suspicious stare.

“I think there could be,” Erik said. “Of course I do, or I wouldn’t be here. But Jane,” he turned to her, “this isn’t enough to prove anything.”

“I have enough to connect my research and the recent atmospheric disturbances,” Jane argued. “It’s not much, but it’s a start. I just... I don’t get why you don’t see it, too.” Frustrated, Jane threw her marker to the table and stomped towards the ladder to the roof.

Darcy and Erik watched her go. Darcy looked at Erik once Jane disappeared from sight and sighed, disappointed with him. “You’re terrible at this.”

Two nights later, Darcy found herself sitting in Jane’s giant van, bored to tears. With Erik here, Darcy was back to hiding her spark and tattoos. She felt like the blood was too hot beneath her skin, her spark on edge from being contained for so long.

Or maybe, she thought later, it was because of the freak storm that appeared out of _nowhere_ and left a drunken idiot stumbling around, screaming at them. Darcy’s spark hummed; she listened to the ominous feeling creeping up her spine as the man continued to yell. Something wasn’t right about him, that much she could tell.

It was only logical to blast him into unconsciousness with her spark.

Jane and Erik gaped at her and Darcy belatedly tugged the taser out of her bag, mentally thanking Julian. “What? He was freaking me out!”

Erik watched her suspiciously after they dropped the guy off at the hospital. Darcy felt a little bad for the dude- she'd hit him pretty hard. Not hard enough to kill, obviously, but she’d used enough force to drop a werewolf. He _seemed_ human, but Darcy had an itch at the back of her mind, some unknown, urgent knowledge buzzing beneath her skin. She'd learned long ago to listen to that sense.

Darcy stayed quiet while Erik and Jane argued the next day, Jane’s excitement tangible. She listened to their bickering, to Jane’s insistence that someone else’s constellations appeared in the sky during the storm. A shape in one of the printouts caught her eye and Darcy frowned, approaching the board. She squinted at the man-shaped blur on the photo and felt a sinking pit of dread form in her stomach.

Things were about to get interesting.

And they did get interesting, which was entertaining as hell until a swarm of government agents descended on the lab and stole all of Jane’s equipment. Darcy watched quietly, gripping Jane’s arm when the astrophysicist looked ready to drop them all into the Fae realm. She glared at the agent in charge’s smug smile when they packed everything up, but said nothing. Neither of the women could afford a faceless government agency looking at them too closely.

“They took all my stuff,” Jane said in the still quiet of the empty lab.

“Definitely going the supervillain route, then,” Darcy decided.

“Those motherfuckers.”

Darcy choked on a laugh and looped her arm through Jane’s, tugging her boss to the couch. “I backed some of it up onto the program I was coding,” Darcy said after warding the room. “It’s not all gone. As for the rest of it...”

Jane pressed her face into her hands and tried to breathe. “That was my entire life’s work.”

Darcy set a reassuring hand on the Fae’s shoulder, carefully initiating physical contact for the first time. Jane was weird about touch- standoffish, even- but she looked like she could use a little support. “We’ll get it back, Jane.”

~*~

So, there was a chance the crazy dude was Thor, actual God of Thunder. No biggie. Darcy was honestly more concerned with the sudden influx of feds.

She eyed the rooftops in town, marking the agents surveilling them with the constant awareness her spark provided. No surprise- Darcy's subconscious wasn’t a fan of the eyes on her back.

Darcy pulled her phone out of her back pocket when it buzzed, still watching the men monitoring their every move. She walked down the street towards the tiny grocery store, counting the agents and noting their positions. Darcy answered the call and pretended not to notice when one of them frowned at her, watching her go with narrowed eyes.

“Argent,” Darcy said, aware the agents were likely monitoring her calls. Bastards.

“Everything okay?” Allison asked, not missing a beat. Darcy mentally sent a prayer of thanks that it was Allison who called her and not one of the pack. She loved them all dearly, but they tended to forget what other people considered normal. The last thing she needed was for Agent K to disappear Darcy after overhearing her jabbering about werewolves.

“Eh,” Darcy hedged. She chewed on her lip, wondering how to explain the situation without revealing anything that would get her locked up in a dark hole somewhere. As far as she’d been able to tell so far, none of the agents were in the know about the supernatural. Apparently just alien gods, but honestly, everyone was a little thrown for a loop with that development. “How’s the parental unit?”

Allison snorted. “The same. I was actually calling to give you a heads up; Peter and Chris are taking a road trip. You’re like, stop number three on their drive across the country.”

Shit. Darcy scowled at yet another agent, pretending to be a shopper hovering over the frozen food section. “Any chance you can delay them? I’m kinda dealing with something... sensitive.”

“I think I can figure something out,” Allison said. Darcy heard the hunter’s thoughtful tone and felt a little sorry for the men. “On another note, I’m now a little concerned about you. What’s going on?”

“You literally would not believe me, Alli,” Darcy muttered, squinting angrily at another “shopper.”

“I think after everything we’ve seen, I’d believe that whatever you’ve gotten yourself caught up in is legit,” Allison said with a laugh.

“Nothing I can’t handle,” Darcy told her with false cheer. “Just something stuck to my shoe.”

“Hmm.” Allison was quiet for a moment. “Well, I’d better get on the whole sabotage thing. Peter’s been chomping at the bit to leave early, so I have to make my move soon.”

“You’re terrifying,” Darcy told her friend.

“Thank you,” Allison said, pleased. “Talk soon?”

“You bet,” Darcy promised, and hung up. She breathed easier knowing her message would be passed along. Stiles’s insistence on secret codes had been laughed at initially, but Darcy was grateful she’d listened to some of his ideas.

Darcy left the grocery store with an armload of bags. She made sure to wave at the agents hidden on the rooftops this time, grinning when an angry townsperson followed her gaze and saw them, too. The agents scrambled out of sight.

She handed possible-Thor-God-of-Thunder a sandwich from the grocery store’s deli, shaking her head when he beamed at her in thanks. Jane, to Darcy’s amusement, seemed unable to decide where to focus her attention- on the notebook Thor had stolen back for her during his failed attempt to take back his hammer or on the literal god sitting in a chair far too small for a man his size.

Thor watched as Darcy shoved a chicken wrap in Jane’s hand and covered the notebook with her hands until Jane took a bite, glowering at her intern. Only then did Darcy move her hands and reach for her own sandwich.

Thor eyed them strangely. Supposedly, he was mortal now. Darcy wondered if the alien prince could still catch glimpses of the magic lurking beneath their skins, sometimes doing a double take as if he could partially see through the glamor both women maintained.

He was smart enough to keep quiet, though, quickly picking up on Erik’s ignorance. Jane dropped her sandwich- half eaten; Darcy sighed at the sight- and stalked off to find Erik, nose buried in her notebook. Darcy warded the room against eavesdroppers, aware of Thor’s burning curiosity.

“Tell me,” Thor said softly, watching her go. “There are many secrets in this world, are there not? Between you three especially.” He nodded towards Erik and Jane, arguing outside.

“Buddy,” Darcy sighed. “You have no idea.” Thor turned to Darcy, curious. She debated the consequences for a moment- because where did _alien prince_ fall on the supernatural spectrum, exactly?-, then decided that he should at least know what not to say. “There are layers in this world,” Darcy said, picking at her sandwich. “The first layer is what you see on the surface- human, normal, regular old earth.” Thor nodded to show he followed. “The second layer, though...”

“Magic,” Thor said with a nod. Darcy blinked at him in surprise. “It’s a different magic from Asgard, true, but magic all the same. You possess a great deal of it, as does the lady Jane.”

“Okay, so, layer two is what we consider the supernatural world. Werewolves, vampires, sparks, magic, Fae.”

“Fae?”

Darcy couldn’t help but wince a little. “Yeah. Fae are...” She eyed Jane outside and trailed off. “Difficult,” she finally said. “They’re layer three, but sort of next to us?”

“An alternate dimension.”

“Yeah,” Darcy said. “But the most important thing is that the people in layer one don’t know _anything_ about the rest of it.”

“Nothing?” Thor frowned.

“Nothing. Approximately forever ago, a bunch of werewolf packs and a random collection of other powerful supernaturals decided it was too dangerous to tell the rest of the world. Humans don’t react well to differences,” Darcy said wryly. “There’s a statute of secrecy for all supernatural beings so the humans don’t panic and start trying to nuke everyone.”

“Including yourself and Jane?”

“Including us,” Darcy confirmed.

“And you control lightning as well?” Thor asked, smiling at her. “You defeated me with my own element when I first arrived.”

Darcy snorted a laugh. “It wasn’t technically lightning. I’m a spark,” she explained. “I have a lot of raw magic. That’s what I hit you with- just funneled through a rune designed to do some damage.”

“It did,” Thor recalled with a wince, rubbing his chest. “No warrior has landed such a blow in ages.”

Pleased, Darcy smiled at him. “Anyway, the important thing here is that you don’t slip up in front of the suits. The agents,” she clarified with a wave of her hand. “If they find out about us, Jane and I will probably end up dissected in some sketchy underground lab somewhere.”

Not that her family would ever allow that. Darcy knew they’d tear the world apart to get her back, but she’d rather not risk it, thanks.

“I understand,” Thor said gravely. He glanced up sharply at Jane, then blinked as if to clear his vision.

“You okay, dude?”

“Yes. Though sometimes...”

“You get a glimpse of us without the glamor?” Darcy asked sympathetically. “That must give you one hell of a headache.” She imagined it would look like very blurry double vision.

Thor rubbed at the side of his head, nodding. “Tell me, Lady Darcy, what sort of magic does Jane possess?”

“I’m not sure,” Darcy said honestly. “I don’t think it’s like anything else on this earth, though.”

“It reminds me somewhat of the Bifrost,” Thor murmured, watching the scientist through the windows. “And of the spaces between the realms.”

“Well. That’s not terrifying at all,” Darcy said, wide-eyed.

“Apologies, my friend,” Thor said, resting a giant hand on her shoulder. “I did not mean to alarm you.”

“Uh huh,” Darcy said absently, staring at Jane with some trepidation. The half-Fae's magic was a huge, unknown entity. Darcy was smart enough to be wary, but... Well. She remembered the fear on others’ faces, the caution in their manner towards Darcy due to her own power. “It’s fine, I’m just rethinking some things.” Like how she was going to explain emotionally adopting the Seelie Queen’s daughter to the pack.

As weird as her life had become, Darcy couldn’t manage any further shock when Thor’s friends showed up. The giant robot of fire and death, however, she acknowledged with the appropriate levels of _what the fuck_.

Darcy saw the robot’s capability for destruction and immediately moved to help evacuate the town- ensuring the terrified animals from the pet store made it out, too. Darcy shielded when necessary, damn the statute of secrecy. She wouldn’t let people die if she could do something.

Jane, with her usual lack of self-preservation, stayed close to the battle. Darcy joined her, letting the camouflage over her tattoos drop underneath her long-sleeved shirt. She kept a shield up between Jane and the robot, not liking the tension in Jane’s shoulders or the fearless intent in her gaze.

Jane stared at the shield in surprise, glancing at Darcy with an unreadable expression on her face. Darcy edged closer to the scientist. “As fucking _hilarious_ as it would be to drop this thing in your mother’s lap, we can’t expose ourselves,” Darcy said with a nod to the agents shouting in alarm. Jane grimaced in agreement but watched the fight closely, bumping against Darcy’s shield. Erik watched everything with wide eyes, unsure of what to try and process first.

Darcy was so busy preparing a strategy to stop the fucking Terminator that Thor was able to slip around the shield. Jane’s horrified gasp brought Darcy’s attention back, too late to stop the blow. Thor crumpled like a puppet with its strings cut. Jane darted forward when Darcy let the shield drop- no point in keeping it up now, not when she was gearing up to blast the deathbot into little metal pieces.

Darcy nudged Erik back, looked at the agents on the scene with trepidation- she was about to blow her cover in a very literal way- and then froze at the faint whistling noise. Something approached at the speed of sound from the desert, hurtling towards them.

And then, to her relief, Thor caught his hammer. Jane staggered back, shocked. “Did he just sailor moon into his outfit?” Darcy asked under her breath. Jane smacked at Darcy, still staring at Thor.

“Thank God,” Erik breathed when Thor returned to the fight.

“Thank Thor,” Darcy corrected, though she was just as relieved. “Your mother almost had a _very_ bad day,” she told Jane. Jane bit her lip to restrain the hysterical laugh building in her chest.

~*~

Thor left, the feds didn’t, and Darcy wondered if now was the moment they’d be discovered, without the God of Thunder there to distract the jackbooted thugs from the magic right underneath their noses.

Shield helped the town rebuild, to Darcy’s surprise, after forcing stacks of NDAs on everyone within a thirty mile radius. They also returned Jane’s equipment, after which Jane and Darcy spent a few grueling hours examining every square inch of the machines. They found a concerning amount of devices hidden carefully- listening, recording, you name it- and spent the afternoon crushing them all with a hammer.

By now, Darcy was familiar enough with the machines that she noticed every small change, every minor detail that wasn’t evident before. The events of the past few days, Shield’s interference and apparent intentions to spy on Jane’s work, and Erik’s suspicious looks at the both of them had Jane and Darcy tense and snapping at each other.

Finally, Darcy threw her hands up after the third re-examination of the machines turned up empty and stomped to the RV. She headed for the roof next, clutching two small bottles of tequila she’d stashed away last week. Tonight, Darcy decided, was no longer worth the effort. It was time for a little liquid therapy.

Jane joined her after her third shot, right after Darcy warded the roof so she could get drunk without worrying about the stupid spying spies. She reached silently for the second bottle and tipped it back, staring at the sky. Neither spoke until the bottles were half empty and they were tipping pleasantly into drunk territory. Jane stared out at the desert where Thor’s rainbow bridge had collected him, grimacing at the taste of the tequila.

“Where’s the line, Jane?” Darcy asked despairingly, laying on her back because sitting up proved too difficult. She flopped a hand out towards the astrophysicist, sending her almost-empty bottle of tequila spinning away. “You! You are- are a-”

“Don’t say it,” Jane warbled, narrowing her bloodshot eyes dangerously.

“A fairy princess-”

“I hate you _so much_.”

“And I’m... I am... Harry fucking Potter.” Darcy frowned thoughtfully at the sky. “If he were a girl and was raised by wolves.”

Her head tipped to the side so she could stare over at the Fae. “Jane. Janie. Earth already has Fae, and werewolves, and sparks. Where is the _line_? Do we draw it at aliens? Huh? The fairy princess of earth says ‘no, no, aliens are officially TOO WEIRD TO CONSIDER.’” Darcy hiccupped.

“Stop calling me that, dammit!” Jane hissed. “And quit shouting about all this or the dicks will come back.”  

“’S fine,” Darcy waved a hand through the air. “I warded. They can’t hear nothin’.”

“Like total silence isn’t suspicious, either,” Jane groaned.

“Fine, fine.” Darcy waved a hand unnecessarily through the air again to dispel the wards. “Now they can listen to their hearts’ content. God, I hate them.”

“Shhh,” Jane warned, looking around suspiciously. “Some of ‘em came closer.” Darcy lifted her head to peer down from the roof. Two SUVs lurked half a mile away, not even trying to be subtle.

“You take their funding offer yet?” Darcy asked, reaching valiantly for the bottle again. She sulked when it spun away from her wiggling fingers, out of reach.

“Shield can get fucked,” Jane said shortly.

Darcy squinted over at the SUVs. “They’re probably listening.”

“I hope they are,” Jane said dangerously, glaring at the cars.

“Hey, Jane?” Darcy went back to staring at the stars, liquid courage prompting her to bring up the thoughts that had been circling anxiously through her mind all day.

“Uh huh.”

“I have money.”

Jane looked away from her furious glowering at the Shield vehicles and raised a brow at Darcy, fighting back her amusement. “Congratulations.”

“No,” Darcy huffed. “What I _mean_ is that... you travel a lot, right?”

Confused, Jane set her own bottle down. “Yes. It’s better to get readings from a variety of locations, so I can account for-”

“No, no! No science when I’m drunk. When _we’re_ drunk. It’ll make me wanna puke.” Darcy groaned and rubbed at her face.

“I’m doing just fine,” Jane argued. “I have a high tolerance,” she said smugly.

“Woohoo for you,” Darcy muttered. “I have the tolerance of a three-year old.”

“Really? The whole-” Jane wriggled her fingers at Darcy, like that was supposed to mean anything- “doesn’t do anything to help?”

“Nope! Does nothin’ to help. Are the jackbooted thugs still here?”

Jane glanced over. “I think they’re leaving?”

“Okay, well...” Darcy waited for the cars to wind their way back towards town and then set her wards back up. “I’m not sober enough to remember what not to say. We may speak freely,” she announced, then sighed heavily and blinked up at the night sky.

“The semester’s almost over,” Jane said after a long pause.

“I want extra credit for the whole alien invasion thing,” Darcy said immediately.

Jane sputtered a laugh, then grew quiet again. Darcy let her think, humming under her breath as she watched the stars watch her right back.  “I don’t have enough funding to keep an assistant,” Jane said finally. “Especially after refusing Shield.”

Darcy rolled unsteadily onto her side so she could prop up on an elbow and blink over at the Fae. “I know.” Jane looked away. Darcy slowly realized that maybe, just maybe, Jane didn’t want Darcy to leave, either. “That’s why I told you I have money.” She smiled hopefully at Jane when the astrophysicist glanced over with an unreadable expression. “And I thought it might be good to spread my wings a little, y’know? See the world, keep the peace, travel with a friend,” Darcy finished hesitantly.  

“You’d want to stay with me?” Jane asked, picking at the label on the tequila bottle.

Darcy shrugged. “Eh. You’re not as terrible as I thought you were,” she teased. Jane rolled her eyes, but she was smiling, just the smallest curve to her lips. “And I don’t mind the work, or the rest of it. Not even your very explody machines or the diy-aesthetic you've got goin' for you.”

“You’re the worst,” Jane said with a laugh. Darcy grinned at her.

“I mean, the real question is, do you want an assistant that’s a walking trouble magnet with absolutely no understanding of astrophysics?”

“You still don’t get what I’m trying to do?” Jane asked, exasperated.

Darcy carefully climbed to her feet, swaying slightly until she could lean back against the giant cart they’d brought up for stashing snacks. She looked at Jane as seriously as she could manage, trying to project sincerity. “No, I don’t. But I also never bothered to ask, just like everyone else in the world. I’m sorry for that.” Jane shrugged.

“Jane,” Darcy said. Jane looked at Darcy, held her gaze. “What _are_ you doing?”

Jane was silent for so long Darcy almost gave up on hope of getting an answer. But Darcy stayed quiet, too, giving the Fae space. She said nothing when Jane shook her head at the stars, didn’t move when Jane started to pace back and forth across the roof in front of Darcy.

“Magic,” she said finally, “is just science we don’t understand yet.” Darcy nodded, recalling the same declaration in one of Jane’s first arguments with Erik. Jane paced some more. “I am both a scientist and born of magic. I have an _understanding_ of both worlds, a knowledge of what makes this world special and a desire to understand it- to help others understand it, too.”

“Understand things like the Fae realm?” Darcy asked.

Jane gave a dismissive wave of her hand. “Sure, but that’s just the start. _We_ all know it exists, some of us have been there and seen it with our own eyes. And maybe one day everyone will know about it. Maybe they won’t understand it at first, but they’ll learn.”

“But…” Darcy prompted.

“But there’s _more_.” Jane whirled around to face her, eyes hard, shoulders tight. “There’s so much more to everything we think we know, Darcy.” Jane tipped her head back to look at the stars and gave a brittle laugh. “I can _feel_ it, all of the possibilities and the worlds just outside of my reach. Whatever my magic is, whatever it does or it wants, wherever it came from… It is _screaming_ at me every single second of every single day to find those answers. But no one else- human or supernatural- can feel what I feel.”

Darcy had to take a moment, had to blink back her tears and the tightness in her chest at the longing and desperation in Jane’s voice. “I believe you,” Darcy said eventually, as Jane’s hands clenched into fists and her eyes drifted downwards.

Jane’s head whipped up. She stared at Darcy. “What?”

“I believe you,” Darcy repeated calmly. How could anyone not believe her, after witnessing the incredible strength Jane possessed- not to mention her magic.

“I…” Darcy watched the other woman fumble for something to say and wondered privately if Jane had ever heard those words before. “You do?” Jane finally asked. Some of the brittleness in her eyes had faded, astonishment chipping that armor away.

"Janie, you're the one and only Fae on earth that can create gates to an alternate world. _Multiple_ gates. The strength that takes," Darcy said, shaking her head in awe. "It's insane. Incomprehensible. You're the strongest supernatural being I've ever met, and I was raised by the _Hales_." Jane's lip twitched. "So when you, the Queen's heir, the astrophysicist who told the rest of the world to fuck off- when you say that you know there are other worlds out there? I sure as hell am going to believe you."  

Jane stared at Darcy for a long moment. Darcy waited, a little uncertain now, as the other woman swiped angrily at her eyes. Jane stared for another tense pause, and then she took three steps forward to throw her arms around Darcy.

Darcy was so shocked it took her a few seconds to respond, to bring her own arms up and hug Jane back. Jane sniffled in her ear. “Are you… showing affection?” Darcy asked in disbelief.

“Oh, shut up,” Jane muttered, still clinging to her.

“Hey, Jane?” Darcy asked when the woman let her go.

“Yeah?” Jane chased Darcy’s tequila bottle across the roof.

“Thor kinda gave you all the proof you needed,” Darcy pointed out. “It’s a small start- especially since those fuckers aren’t letting you publish- but other people know now. It’s a stepping stone to you totally turning everyone’s world upside down.” Jane’s answering smile was as bright as the stars above them.

~*~

“‘Something stuck to my shoe’?” The agent asked, leaning against the bar next to Darcy with an amused smile. “Really?”

Darcy grinned at him, unrepentant. “Too obvious?”

“Just a bit,” the man laughed.

“Well, _I’m_ not the super spy here,” Darcy said, watching his eyes widen a fraction. “Oh, sorry, am I still supposed to pretend you’re just one more jackbooted thug?”

“Jackbooted thug?” He repeated, brows high.

Darcy shrugged. “Erik’s term. It stuck.”

The agent offered a calloused hand. Darcy shook it, smiling innocently as he very obviously tried to take her measure. “I prefer Clint. But my question for you, Darcy Lewis-Hale, is how you seem to know where every single one of our highly trained agents are at all times."

“Highly trained agents?” Darcy snorted. “Please. If those idiots don’t want to be caught, they shouldn’t stand on the roof of every third building in this tiny-ass town. Besides-” Darcy flicked her fingers at his well-worn army jacket’s collar, “they all wear cheap suits and slink around like they’re in _Mission: Impossible_.”

Clint snorted, sipping his beer. Darcy eyed him, wondering just how far she wanted to take this. She decided to call him on it. “So, the boss sent his prettiest agent in to get answers from the intern, huh?”

“The boss was a little curious,” Clint admitted, scanning the room lazily. Darcy knew better- she watched his gaze drift over the handful of potential troublemakers in the town’s only, and therefore very busy, bar. She’d already marked them- all human, no threat past a couple drunken assholes wedged into a small space together. Clint refocused on her. “Especially after you and Foster went on a little killing spree yesterday.”

“Your bugs, you mean?” Darcy asked sweetly.

“And the weird silences from the lab,” Clint continued, not acknowledging her question. “We had some interference with our channels at the same time. Just straight static.”

“Maybe it’s aliens,” Darcy shrugged.

“Who _are_ you?” Clint asked, peering down at her.

“My intern,” Jane said, elbowing her way through the crowd. “Now get lost.” Darcy grinned around her next mouthful of beer.

“Assistant,” she reminded Jane, handing the Fae her drink.

Jane glowered at Clint. She didn’t forgive easy, _especially_ when faceless government organizations interfered with her work. “Why are you still here?”

“He’s on a mission,” Darcy explained, propping her chin up in her hand. “From Agent K. To learn all our secrets, no matter what the cost.” She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. Clint blanched at Jane’s lethal glare.

“Shield just likes to keep an eye on dangerous people,” Clint said hurriedly.

“And _we’re_ dangerous?” Darcy asked, giving him a disbelieving stare. She looked pointedly between Jane’s small frame and her own.

“My boss seems to think so,” Clint said, though he looked skeptical.

“Everyone’s a little uptight after the deathbot,” Darcy said with false sympathy. “And your boss was a tightwad before then.” Clint choked on his drink.

“That’s a polite way of putting it,” Jane muttered. She nudged Darcy. “Let’s go, Erik’s saving us a table. You-” Jane stabbed a finger at a wary Clint- “go away.” Darcy followed the Fae into the crowd, waving cheerfully at Clint over her shoulder.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Coulson is smart enough to know not everything is as it seems, especially with those two. (Btw I do like Coulson, he was just a smug dick in the Thor movie while stealing all of Jane’s stuff. I have lingering anger.) He does not actually know anything about the supernatural, though.  
> 
> Clint expected to maybe flirt with the cute college kid for a bit, alleviate Coulson’s suspicions, and get a few beers out of it. He was definitely not expecting Darcy and Jane.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They're baaaack!! The pack shows up late to the party (without Starbucks, Darcy is disappointed to see). They had the best intentions.
> 
> This was a super fun chapter to write, so I hope you guys enjoy it!

“You can’t be here,” Darcy hissed, trying to shove the crowd of people into the lab and out of sight of the nosy agents still lingering in town.

“I skipped out on a test for this,” Jackson told her, offended. Danny, standing behind Jackson, rolled his eyes.

“For _what_?!” Darcy asked wildly, warding the entire lab as quickly as she could manage. She peered anxiously down the street to see if they’d been noticed, but Erica tackled her into a hug and she lost sight behind her friend’s mass of blonde hair.

“Making sure you’re okay,” Scott said earnestly. Isaac and Kira nodded in agreement, hovering at Scott’s elbow.

“You sounded stressed on the phone,” Allison said apologetically as she moved to study the street outside. “And the subterfuge was a little heavy-handed.”

“But the important thing is you used my code,” Stiles said smugly. “I _told_ you-”

“The important thing is that Darcy’s fine,” Boyd interrupted. Erica nodded.

“You all came to New Mex- for god’s sake, it’s almost finals week!” Darcy protested.

The group collectively shrugged, unconcerned. “You’re more important,” Erica said, her voice muffled into Darcy's shoulder.

“ _You’re_ giving me bruises,” Darcy informed her friend. Erica just gripped her tighter. Darcy looked over at the pack, warmth growing in her chest at the sight of them. They’d come from all over the country for her- Isaac, Kira, and Scott from California with Erica and Boyd, Allison and Lydia from Boston, Jackson, Danny, and Stiles from New York.

“Where’s your scientist?” Lydia asked with too-sharp interest from across the lab, studying Jane’s whiteboard of equations closely.

“Oh. Yeah, about that…” Darcy trailed off as Jane rounded the corner, nose buried in her notes. Jane’s glamor was so thorough that not even the werewolves detected her heritage- except Lydia stiffened in surprise at the sight of the other Fae.

Jane glanced up and blinked, startled to find her lab invaded. “Darcy?”

“Hey, Janie. Um.” Darcy broke free from Erica’s grasp as the ‘wolf turned to study Jane with interest. “Meet the pack?” Everyone glanced at Darcy, brows high. “Pack, meet Dr. Jane Foster, the most brilliant scientist on earth.”

“That’s not all she is,” Lydia said calmly, now seated on top of one of the tables. The banshee crossed her legs primly and stared evenly at Jane. “Right, Darcy?” Jane watched Lydia back with narrowed eyes, notebook forgotten.

Sensing an imminent implosion, Darcy stepped closer to Jane and projected calm thoughts to her contentious werewolves. “Guys, this is Jane Foster.” She hesitated a moment, caught sight of Stiles’s suspicious stare and resigned herself to the next few minutes of insanity. She checked with Jane, who tipped her head in permission, and said, “My boss and, uh… the Seelie Queen’s daughter?”

Darcy braced herself against the onslaught on shocked noises and outraged yells. She saw Jane do the same beside her, eyes wide at the noise. “Okay, shut up already!” Darcy shouted a few seconds later. “Yes, I know I didn’t say anything, but it wasn’t relevant! Besides, Jane hates her mother more than any of us do.”

“How come?” Scott asked.

“She tries to kill Jane on a regular basis, guys, there’s no love lost there,” Darcy reassured them.

“Anyone who hates the Seelie Queen is a friend of mine,” Erica announced, leaning against Boyd. “The bitch sent a chimera after us.”

Jane gaped at Darcy. “Long story, seriously,” Darcy said. “And not one worth discussing.”

“Snake tail,” Erica reminded Darcy.

“It breathed fire,” Isaac said mournfully. “So much fire.” Scott patted him on the arm while Stiles rolled his eyes behind them.

“Yeah, yeah,” Stiles said. “The chimera tried to kill everyone, set half the high school on fire, and then Boyd killed it like he was a fucking _300_ extra.” Boyd smiled smugly. “Just another Tuesday in Beacon Hills. What _I_ want to know is what had you so worried a few days ago.”

“Yeah, who do we need to kill?” Erica asked, looking around the lab.

“No one,” Darcy said, exasperated. "Jane and I have it handled."

"What is 'it'?" Allison asked, raising an eyebrow. "Because whatever _it_ is has this place swarming with government agents."

"You've been in town for like, six minutes, how did you- you know what, never mind." Darcy ran a hand through her hair and sighed. She glanced sideways at Jane. Technically, they'd been forced to sign a truckload of NDA's swearing to never breathe a word about this. But Darcy trusted the pack more than anyone else- they all knew how to keep secrets, obviously. And if Thor kept his word and came back...

"Last week, some dude fell out of the sky and crashed landed in the desert. He turned out to be Thor, the God of Thunder from Asgard, which is apparently another realm in our universe. Then his power-hungry brother sent a deathbot after him that destroyed half the town and tried to kill everyone. Thor killed it and then went home. The feds showed up after Thor did and are trying to keep everything kept quiet, plus they're possibly a little suspicious of me and Jane." Darcy took a deep breath. The pack stared at her in stunned silence.

"That would confirm all of Dr. Foster's theories," Lydia said absently, head cocked as she flipped through a stack of data reports. Jane blinked over at her in surprise.

"It did. It _does_ ," Darcy agreed. "Shield put a gag order on all of her publications, though." Lydia's eyes narrowed dangerously. "We're working on it." Darcy was honestly considering asking Laura to put her law degree to use and taking on Shield. They deserved whatever Laura would do to them.

"So, is your Thor the same Thor from Norse mythology?" Stiles asked. Darcy nodded. "Fucking awesome."

"We missed the death robot," Erica said sadly. Isaac stared at her like she’d lost her mind.

"Consider yourself lucky," Darcy told her. "It was terrible."

"Worse than the chimera?" Boyd asked skeptically.

"Worse than the chimera," Darcy confirmed. Isaac's eyes widened. "But it's gone now; Thor left and the agents should hopefully leave soon, too."

"Well, our return flight isn't for another two days," Jackson said, collapsing on the couch. "Guess you're stuck with us until then." He tugged Danny down next to him and slid an arm over his boyfriend's shoulders. Danny sighed at the typical werewolf manhandling but allowed it, relaxing into the couch.

"Lydia and I drove," Allison reminded him. "So did the others."

"But we haven't been together since college started," Isaac protested, then looked embarrassed until Scott nodded in agreement.

"I already told my professors I was out for a family emergency for the rest of the week," Stiles said, trying to look nonchalant.

"Me, too." Boyd sat in one of the desk chairs, Erica immediately sitting on his lap. He wound an arm around her waist to keep her balanced. Erica beamed at Darcy. "So it's agreed? We're staying." The others brightened, staring at her hopefully.

Darcy couldn't help her relieved grin and she finally admitted, "I've really missed you guys."  

"Me, too," Allison agreed, finally stepping away from her perch at the windows. She smiled at Darcy. "Also, I'm glad you're okay."

Darcy noticed Jane trying to slip out of the room and caught the half-Fae by the back of her over-large sweater. "Oh, no, you don't, Janie. You're staying here with us."

"Yeah, it's pack bonding time," Erica chimed in.

"I'm not..." Jane looked a little overwhelmed.

"You're one of us now," Erica informed her. "Darcy said so."

"You're a member of the pack?" Jane asked Darcy, looking slightly alarmed. Darcy tipped a shoulder in a weak shrug and tried to look unaffected.

"Not really-"

"Fuck that," Boyd interrupted. Darcy stared at him in surprise. "I'm so tired of this shit. Everybody else in the world says you can't be pack because it makes them uncomfortable, but _why_ do we care what they say? I think it's about time we told them all to go to hell." Erica planted a kiss on his cheek.

Darcy looked at the others, all nodding in agreement. Stiles met her eyes and they exchanged a look of solidarity. Darcy sighed. "Talia's already said-"

"Laura says differently," Lydia said casually, still reading through Jane's notes.

"What?" Darcy looked at Stiles in confusion, who just shrugged.

"Laura is Talia's heir," Lydia explained. "She'll be the Hale Alpha one day. And as it turns out, she has a few differences of opinion with her mother."

"But she's never said anything," Darcy said, stunned. She had a sudden urge to go to New York to hug her sister, who was probably planning this for months and years so Darcy wouldn't be left out of the pack- her _family-_ any longer.

"She's going to piss a lot of people off," Stiles said neutrally.

"Especially when she takes two sparks into the pack," Lydia said. Stiles sucked in a breath. Darcy tried not to roll her eyes at him- as if they'd ever forget him. "I've discussed it at length with her. Her response was- and I quote- 'I don't give a flying fuck'."

"Sounds like Laura," Darcy said, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

"Laura has plans for the Hale Pack," Lydia said. She glanced up at Jane. "One more Fae isn't going to change a thing."

"I did not sign up for this," Jane told the room at large.

"Too bad," Jackson said. "Darcy said you're in, so you're in."

"Don't bother arguing," Danny said, long-suffering. "They're attached to you now; you'll never get away." Jackson looked at him, indignant, until Danny tangled their fingers together with a soft smile.

"11 werewolves, two sparks, two hunters-" Allison looked quietly pleased- "one human, a kitsune, a banshee, and whatever Jane is," Erica listed on her fingers. She looked around the room. "Are we taking over the world? Is that what's happening?"

Kira laughed, but the rest of them looked between each other in consideration. "I mean, it is Laura we're talking about," Stiles said. "I wouldn't put it past her."  

Jane looked a little shell-shocked. Darcy took pity on her friend. "We'll discuss world domination plans later." And then, because she couldn't resist, "Jane has some ideas on that, too." Jane shot her a betrayed look; Lydia looked up, interested.

"I just ordered pizzas," Danny told them, lowering his phone. He handed Jackson's credit card back to him with a grateful smile.  

"Incoming," Allison said, tipping her head at the window. Darcy scowled to see three SUVs pull up outside. Coulson stepped out of one of them, looking perfectly composed in his suit despite the desert heat.

"Play dumb," Darcy told the pack, and dropped her wards.

Coulson stepped into the lab a second later, Clint trailing a few feet behind him. Clint scanned the lab, eyebrows raised at the group. Coulson's expression of polite blankness didn't change. He looked at Darcy, who gave her best Harris-esque 'fuck off' smile.

"Miss Lewis," Coulson greeted. He folded his hands in front of him and looked around the room. "I see you have visitors." Clint, because he wasn't an idiot, decided Lydia was the most dangerous of the new arrivals and squinted over at the banshee. Lydia bared her teeth in a terrifying approximation of a smile. Allison watched the two men closely, still stationed at the windows.

Darcy opened her mouth to respond, but Stiles beat her to it. "Stiles Stilinski, nice to meet you," he said cheerfully, holding his hand out for Coulson to shake. "Which agency are you with?"

"I'm sorry?" Coulson glanced suspiciously at Darcy.

"My dad's the Sheriff of Beacon Hills," Stiles explained. "I was a nosy kid, picked up on a few things." He shrugged. "You aren't FBI because the procedure's all wrong and word would've gotten out about your presence through the local cops. Cops are all gossips," Stiles sighed, shaking his head. "CIA isn't permitted to perform ops on American soil, so you would've probably tried a little harder to stay unnoticed if you _were_ CIA. And Homeland Security-" Stiles continued to steamroll the agent. Clint's eyebrows got higher and higher as Stiles rambled on.  

Erica pressed her face into Boyd's shoulder and tried not to laugh out loud; Scott smacked a hand over his face. Jane looked reluctantly impressed. Jackson just rolled his eyes at Stiles- looking surprisingly fond- while Danny typed rapidly on his phone and ignored everyone.

"Shield," Coulson finally interrupted, no longer looking entirely composed. "We're with Shield."

Stiles cocked his head. "Huh. Never heard of you."

Coulson smiled tightly. Before he could start the bullshit spiel, Darcy stepped forward. "Did you need something?" Jane moved to stand beside Darcy and scowled at the agents.

"We're just checking on another disturbance with our satellite feeds," Coulson said. "The source of it is coming from the lab, just like the other occurrences."

"Sounds like a personal problem to me," Darcy said.

Jane glared at the agents. "We aren't doing anything to your stupid 'satellite,' and I don't want you people anywhere near my machines. Go away, and quit fucking spying on us." The 'or else' was heavily implied. Clint shifted somewhat nervously at the gleam in Jane's eyes. The agents lingering outside inched closer.

Stiles and Erica looked positively gleeful at the astrophysicist's ferocity. "My friends are just here to visit," Darcy told the agents. "That's not a problem, is it?" Allison glanced at Darcy's expression and slid silently to the side, subtly positioning herself at the agents' backs. Clint's shoulders tightened and he adjusted his stance to keep Allison in his line of sight, suddenly wary.

Darcy watched as her friends all quietly prepared themselves for a fight, ready to act at a moment's notice. Coulson seemed oblivious to the tension in the room. "Of course not. We'll get out of your hair." He looked around the room, gaze drifting over the unusual group. Darcy didn't trust his quiet, well-disguised interest.

"Nice to meet you!" Stiles called after them. His wards went up a second after Darcy's as they watched the cars drive back to town. "They were sketchy as fuck," he told Darcy.

"Yeah, I know," Darcy said. "They'll probably keep everyone in the lab under surveillance," she warned. "Stiles and I will keep the lab warded, but be extra careful outside the wards."  

"Man, I was looking forward to shifting," Boyd sighed. He looked longingly at the expanse of desert outside.

"I know, it's been forever," Erica whined. "College is the worst."

Jane opened her mouth, then closed it again. She glanced uncertainly at Darcy. "Jane? Something to add?" Darcy asked, noticing her unusual reticence.

"I could, uh, probably help with that?" Jane said. The pack stared at her curiously. "I'm pretty good with glamor, so I could hide you from view if you wanted to go run."

"You could hide five shifted werewolves from an entire town full of people and government agents?" Lydia asked. Jane shrugged modestly.

Darcy rolled her eyes when the 'wolves started stripping excitedly. "Heathens," she muttered fondly. Allison joined her as the pack piled out of the lab, Jane following closely with a frown of concentration. Kira waved at them and followed, flickering orange surrounding her body. Danny chose to walk with Jane at a more sedate pace, still glued to his phone.

"Kira has a lot of energy to burn off," Allison told Darcy as she sat on a desk. "The thunder kitsune thing apparently keeps her pretty hyped up."

"I'm just glad she didn't have her sword with her earlier," Darcy said. "That would've been fun to explain to the suits."

"It's in my car," Allison informed her, grinning. "Along with Stiles's staff. And my bow."

"And a few other things," Lydia said slyly, inspecting her nails. Darcy squinted at her friend, fully aware of her propensity for homemade Molotov cocktails.

Stiles turned away from the windows, where he'd been watching the 'wolves and Kira sprint through the desert. "My staff didn't fit in the rental car Jackson got," he explained, jerking a thumb over his shoulder at the three cars parked outside the lab.

"Let's just say we were lucky I didn't get pulled over," Allison said. Darcy laughed and sat next to Allison on the desk.

"So. One suspicious phone call and you call in the troops?" She asked the hunter.

Allison shrugged. "I called Erica and Stiles, and Lydia was with me. It kind of snowballed from there." She bumped her shoulder against Darcy's. "Besides, we were all worried. No one wanted to stay behind in case you needed us."

Darcy tipped her head over to rest it on Allison's shoulder. "Thanks," she said, smiling at Stiles and Lydia.

"Any time," Stiles told her.

"I have ulterior motives," Lydia explained. "I'm bored with MIT."

"You're going to graduate a year early with full honors," Allison reminded her. "The entire math department is wrapped around your finger."

"Like I said. Bored." Lydia tapped a perfectly manicured nail against Jane's notebook. " _This_ , though, is not boring. This is game-changing, world-altering work. I want in."

"I didn't know you were interested in astrophysics," Darcy said, baffled.

"It was a passing interest when I was a child," Lydia said. "I think I'll add an astrophysics degree to my to-do list."

"I thought you were going to get your PhD in mathematics?" Stiles asked.

"Who says I can't do both?" Lydia smiled sharply.

"Not me," Stiles said hurriedly. "I fully support your decision."

Darcy felt a little faint at the idea of Jane and Lydia putting their heads together. She wasn't sure the world would survive it. "I'm a little afraid at the thought," she said aside to Allison, who smothered a laugh. "What about Chris and Peter? Did you delay them?"

"It's probably better that you don't know the details," Allison winced. "But I bought you a week."

"And then immediately came out yourself to help?" Darcy asked.

"You know how they get," Allison said defensively. "Peter would've been livid about the stalker agents and your newest near-death experience. And Dad would call all his sketchy government friends and make the situation ten times more stressful."  

The 'wolves tumbled through the doorway then, a flailing pile of limbs and snapping teeth. "Yes," Darcy said dryly as Scott face-planted on the floor. "Better that you brought the sensible ones." Stiles laughed.

"Feel better?" Darcy asked the group. Jane nearly walked into a wall when everyone shifted back, standing naked in the lab. "They're werewolves, Jane, none of them give a shit about nudity."

"Get used to it," Danny advised as Jackson tried to shove his own shirt over Danny's head. "At least now they'll be easier to deal with." Darcy agreed, knowing the 'wolves would feel cooped up inside the lab after a while, especially after the long drive.

"Pizzas," Erica said, snapping to attention.

Boyd held her back when she tried to dart outside. "You're naked, babe."  

Jane looked like she was regretting all of her life choices, so Darcy slid off the desk and dragged her to the couch while Danny and Kira collected the pizzas. "They get less overwhelming," she told the Fae sympathetically. Erica leapt over the glass table and landed next to Darcy on the couch, followed by a much calmer Boyd. "Eventually," Darcy amended.  

The pack descended upon the pizzas; Darcy snatched a box of pepperoni from the stack before it was inhaled and shared with Jane. She left to get drinks for everyone from the fridge in the RV. Erica and Stiles followed to help carry them back.

"Feral cat protocol initiated," Stiles told Darcy under his breath as they walked back to the lab, nodding in Jane's direction. Erica snorted a laugh.

"Feral cat protocol?" Darcy asked, amused.

"What? It's the same concept," Stiles protested. "We want to keep her, don't we?"

"We do," Erica confirmed. "She's scary. I like her."

"So, we feed her-" Stiles motioned towards the pizzas and promptly dropped three sodas. Darcy sighed and gathered them up. "Act super friendly-" Allison and Kira spoke with Jane about something that involved a lot of wild hand gestures- "and offer shelter."

"This is Jane's lab," Darcy reminded him.

"I meant the _family_ kind of shelter," Stiles grumbled, exasperated. Sure enough, the pack made sure to draw Jane into their conversations, explaining the references (mostly to their long list of adversaries over the years) and other pack-affiliates. Sure enough, Jane's eyes were bright and she stopped flinching at every touch, slowly warming up to the pack's affectionate touches.

"I'm telling Jane you called her a feral cat," Darcy said as they approached.

"Do _not_." Erica snickered at the fear in Stiles's voice.

"Tell us about Thor," Isaac said when they re-joined the group. "Was he awesome?"

"He was kind of a dick at first," Darcy told them. Jane nodded. "But he got better."

"After you knocked him out," Jane reminded her.

"You fought a god?" Scott asked with wide eyes.

"It wasn't much of a fight," Jane said. "He'd just lost his powers and Darcy zapped him into oblivion."

Darcy narrowed her eyes at the Fae. "Yeah? Well, Jane ran over him with the van. Twice!"

"You _ran over a god_?" Erica laughed in delight. "Oh, you're gonna fit in just fine."

"But you're not driving us anywhere ever again," Darcy told Jane, who just scowled at her.

Hours later, the pack drove to Darcy's tiny apartment in shifts to shower. They'd all decided to sleep in the lab, so Jackson, Scott, and Danny went to the store to buy more pillows and blankets. No one bothered to suggest an air mattress- the last one they'd bought died a gruesome death via claws a year ago.

"Comforters," Scott said as they walked towards Jackson's rented sports car. "Like, ten fluffy comforters and we can make a giant bed. Oh! And blankets for a fort!"

"We're not ten years old, McCall," Jackson said as the door slammed behind them. Darcy watched them argue their way to the car, Danny refereeing the half-hearted argument.

"I think we all kind of needed this," Boyd said from beside Darcy on the couch. Isaac, shifted back into a wolf and sprawled across her feet, sighed heavily in agreement. Darcy looked at the other group laughing and joking around as they climbed into Allison and Kira's cars. "We were all in each other's pockets for years," Boyd continued, letting Darcy squirm around until she could lean comfortably against him. "It's been hard on everyone, the way we split up."

"That's because we're all codependent freaks," Darcy muttered. Isaac huffed indignantly. "I'm not saying it's a _bad_ thing," Darcy told him. She glanced over to the corner of the lab, where Jane and Lydia had sequestered a desk and a giant whiteboard. The two Fae women spoke quietly to each other, their heads bent over Jane's notes and the atmospheric data.

"Sometimes I miss it," Darcy admitted. Isaac blinked at her. "High school, I mean. Not actual school, just the way we were all together, in one place. And only ten minutes away when shit went down."

"I'm glad you'll have Jane with you when you travel," Boyd said, propping his chin up on Darcy's head. "Better that you're not alone." Erica rounded the corner, freshly showered from the RV. She climbed over Isaac and sprawled over the three of them, ignoring Isaac's growl when she managed to kick him in the head.

"Once we graduate, we're traveling with you some," Erica told Darcy. She wriggled until Darcy was pressed between her and the couch, head resting on Boyd's stomach. Isaac adjusted to lay across their legs.

"Not if you have stores to run," Darcy teased. "You graduate this year."  

"Yeah, but we gotta keep our spark safe, too," Erica said around a yawn. Darcy blinked back the rising tears and sniffed a little. Erica sleepily patted her on the hip.

"We got your back, Darce," Boyd rumbled. "No matter what." Darcy met Jane's gaze across the lab. The Fae smiled at her, as if to say the same.

"Got yours, too," Darcy told the room at large. "No matter what."   


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been calling this "The Adventures of Darcy and Jane" in my head, because that's basically what it's turned into. I regret nothing.

“Bite Me."

“Fucking rude,” Darcy told Erica, adjusting her grip on the phone.

“No,” Erica laughed. “That’s the name of the store. Get it? Because it's part bakery, but also because werewolves.”

“So much for subtle,” Darcy said, unable to stop her grin. She tossed yet another bag into the van, ignoring the ominous clinking noises.  

"Subtlety is overrated," Erica said dismissively. "Plus, Boyd only rolled his eyes a little bit when I suggested it, so it's the clear winner."

"Did you find a place yet?" Darcy squinted over at Jane, who got distracted ten minutes into packing and now sat halfway under a desk, muttering to herself as she scribbled notes on the margins of one of Darcy's books. Shaking her head, Darcy hauled another bag to the van.

"Yes, actually, right in the middle of downtown." Darcy heard her friend shuffling through one of her notebooks. "I'm negotiating the lease with the asshole who owns it this week."

"Don't traumatize the poor guy too much," Darcy teased.

"I'll do much worse than that if he doesn't come down on the rent price," Erica said threateningly. "He thinks he can jack up the price an extra thousand just because I'm young and beautiful?" Darcy snorted a laugh. "I'm going to make him regret all of his life choices."

"You could always just offer to buy it," Darcy suggested. "I've put aside more than enough money."

"Yeah, but..."

"But?" Darcy prodded after Erica's uncertain silence.

"But what if it fails?" Erica blurted. "What if we buy the building and then I fuck it up and the store fails and-"

"Erica." Darcy waited for her friend to take a breath. "It's not going to fail. _You're_ not going to fail. You've been planning this for years, you went to school for a business degree and you totally kicked ass."

"... I did, didn't I?" Darcy could hear the smile in Erica's voice.

"Hell yes you did. Plus, Boyd will be with you every step of the way. He's got the skill with numbers to keep it afloat, and the patience to deal with whatever potential disasters may happen."

"I really love him," Erica sighed. "I'm going to propose, you know."

"Oh, I know," Darcy said, amused. She'd been dragged to jewelry stores by both Erica and Boyd on separate occasions. Erica took three steps into the store, pointed at a case and said, "that one."

Boyd stressed over finding the perfect ring, until Darcy reminded him that Erica wouldn't care if Boyd proposed with a ring pop. In the end, though, his grandmother smacked him over the head for not consulting her and handed him the ring her late husband proposed with decades ago.

"That girl is family and she'll be treated as such," Anika Boyd had scolded, handing over a beautiful vintage ring. "This has been in our family for generations. You give this to her and don't ever let her go." She patted Darcy's hand when the spark sniffled.

"But I want to wait until the store is up and running," Erica mused. Darcy made a mental note to adjust her bid in the betting pool. "Because I can't imagine trying to plan a wedding on top of starting a business."

"Like you don't already have six pinterest boards on planning a wedding," Darcy laughed.

"It's a really helpful website, okay?" Erica demanded. "I'm just trying to consider all my options."

"I liked the color scheme you pinned yesterday," Darcy said as she shooed Jane out from under the desk and stabbed a finger at Jane's bags. The astrophysicist scowled but obeyed, taking her bags to the car.

"Oh, me too, and I was thinking- oh, shit, I have to go or I'll be late." Something heavy thunked on Erica's end and she swore loudly. "Darce?" She asked after exchanging goodbyes.

"Uh huh?"

"You meant it, right? About buying the place, and, uh, the other thing?" Erica asked hesitantly.

"Every word," Darcy promised.

Erica sighed. "Thanks, Darcy. I'll call you tomorrow. Love you!"

"Love you, too," Darcy said and hung up. "Jane! For god's sake, finish packing the car!" Jane looked up from her notes again and sighed excessively through the last of the bags.

Darcy stood outside with her hands on her hips once the lab was all packed up. Jane joined her, bumping her shoulder amiably against Darcy's. The Fae had made a point to reach out after seeing the pack's tactile ways and Darcy's almost touch-starved behavior. Friendly touches- _any_ touches, really- weren't familiar to Jane, but she tried. Darcy loved her for it.

"I'm gonna miss this place, I think," Darcy decided, staring at the old gas station.

"Me, too," Jane said. She glanced over at Darcy. "I would've missed you more, if you'd left."

Touched, Darcy wrapped her arm around Jane's shoulders and hugged the scientist. "I would've missed you, too." The stared at the building for another few minutes, reminiscing, before Darcy nudged Jane. "Let's go. Colorado awaits!" She climbed into the driver's seat and pointed the car north.

"It's just you, me, and the open road, Janie," Darcy said cheerfully. The van rattled its way down the road.

"Just drive," Jane said, amused. "I have data to collect."

"Yeah, plus Chris and Peter are meeting us at the hotel in a couple days." Whatever Allison had done, it bought Darcy closer to two weeks instead of the one she'd been promised. Long enough that Jane needed to move on, to go chase the stars somewhere else. Darcy was still too afraid to ask what methods the hunter had resorted to.  

Jane shifted nervously in the passenger seat. Darcy glanced at her. "You've already met most of the pack; Chris and Peter will be much less stressful than the rest of them."

"One is a member of the most notorious hunting family in history, and the other is your father. _Both_ are technically your fathers," Jane argued. "That doesn't sound 'less stressful' to me."

Darcy cocked her head in consideration. "Technically, with Andrew, I have _three_ dads. And none of them are actually my biological father.” Jane’s fingers clenched around her notebook. “It'll be fine, Jane," Darcy said soothingly. “They’re gonna love you. The rest of the pack did, remember?”

Jane's nerves didn't dissipate until she was distracted by her work again; luckily, she remained in the zone for most of the 6 hour drive to Colorado Springs and spent the drive muttering to herself and scribbling notes. Darcy pulled into the hotel late that afternoon, grinning at the horror on the valet's faces when the Pinz rattled its way into the lot. Jane resurfaced and looked around, frowning. "Darcy, this isn't the hotel I found."

"Jane, you found a _motel-_ totally different situation," Darcy told her. "Which also happened to be the only one in town with a reputation for bedbugs and stained sheets."

"I can't afford-"

"I didn't use your money," Darcy interrupted, noting the uneasiness on her friend's face.

"You are not paying for the travel and living expenses," Jane said stubbornly.

"No, I'm not," she answered cheerfully. A valet hesitantly knocked on the window. Darcy let him open the door for her and climbed out, pulling the keys back when he reached for them. "We have scientific instruments in the back," Darcy explained. She jerked a thumb over her shoulder at Jane's mistrustful, scowling face. "For your own sake, I'll park the car once I check in."

He looked relieved, stepping away from the monster of a van. Jane kicked her own door open and stalked inside after Darcy. Darcy stepped up to the front desk and smiled at the man at the desk.

The concierge smiled back at her. "Hello, and welcome to Reneux Resort and Spa. Are you checking in?"

"Actually, I don't technically have a reservation," Darcy explained. "But my name is Darcy Lewis, and I-"

"Oh, yes, of course Miss Lewis. I have a couple rooms set aside for you," he said immediately. "Here's your room key and an all-access pass to the restaurants in the hotel." Darcy accepted them, Jane watching in bewilderment.

"Thank you so much," Darcy told the guy, and herded Jane to a small seating area. "Wait here, I'll go park the van." She walked back to the van, snorting a laugh at the other visitors’ judgmental looks and the wide berth they gave the Pinz. It was certainly an eyesore against the extravagant entrance to the hotel. Darcy loved it.

Jane accepted her bag from Darcy when she returned and eyed the spark suspiciously in the elevator. "Why does a five star resort have you on their VIP list?"

"So, there's this vampire," Darcy started. She couldn't help her grin at Jane's expression. "Julian Reneux?"

"Never heard of him," Jane said, unimpressed. Oh, Darcy couldn't _wait_ to introduce them. Jane wouldn't give Julian the time of day- the vampire would be beside himself.

"He's super rich, owns like a gazillion properties across the world, and wants to be my best friend."

"He's a _vampire_ ," Jane said, appalled. "They hate sparks!"

"Like the Fae hate us?" Darcy reminded her.

Jane huffed. "That's different."

"It's really not," Darcy said mildly. "Julian wants to help; we've been allied for about three years now and he really has done everything in his power to make my life easier." She unlocked their door and stepped inside, Jane close behind her.

"Well, shit," Jane said as they stared around the huge suite. "If this is his idea of 'help,' I'm all for it."

"Same," Darcy breathed, looking around. "This is the first time I've taken him up on the offer." She picked up the complimentary wine bottle and wiggled it in Jane's direction. Jane dropped her bag to the floor and snatched it out of Darcy's hands, grinning widely.  

Darcy assessed the enormous king-sized bed and nodded in satisfaction. "Jane, I hate to tell you, but we're not going out to get your readings tonight."

Jane looked up from where she sat on the floor, trying to twist the top off the wine. "We're not?"

"No. We're going to order room service and drinks and watch movies until we fall asleep sitting up," Darcy decided. She handed Jane the bottle opener resting on the table.

Jane cocked her head in consideration. "Is that what girls do at sleepovers?"

"Yes, and that's exactly what we're going to do. Go change into your most comfortable pajamas, Janie. It's too bad we don't have anything to gossip about," Darcy said. "That would complete the high school sleepover mood I'm trying to achieve."

"We can talk shit about Shield instead," Jane suggested, digging through her bag.

"That'll do." Darcy grabbed her own pjs, the room service menu, and the tv remote. Her otter tattoo swirled across her back, expressing Darcy’s excitement.

"I bet he wears his suits to bed," Jane sneered hours later, well on her way to drunk. Darcy tipped against the scientist and cackled.

"Or! Or he-" Darcy poked Jane in the side of the neck and laughed at the Fae's resounding squawk of surprise- "shuts down at night and just reboots every morning."

"Like the good little government robot he is," Jane agreed.  

"At least he gave you your stuff back," Darcy said after a moment of contemplative silence.

Jane whipped her head around to glare at Darcy in betrayal. "Only _after_ they forced me to sign NDAs that keep me from publishing any of my findings! His kindness was _conditional_ , Darcy! Besides that, you know I don't like being told what to do."

"You listen to me," Darcy pointed out. Jane flapped a hand around in the air, nearly smacking Darcy in the face.

"Yeah, but you're my friend," Jane said. "And your stuff is usually, _'Jane, eat this,'_ or _'Jane, drink some water before you shrivel up and die,'_ or _'Jane, this machine's trying to blow up again, come help me.'_ "

"Wow," Darcy said, impressed. "You really do listen to me."

"'Course I do." Jane passed the second wine bottle over and squinted at the screen. "I like this movie."

"Everyone likes _Practical Magic_."

"Midnight margaritas?" Jane asked, accepting the wine bottle back and draining it. "Let's do that next time."

"Deal."

Darcy regretted her choices the next morning, hungover and slightly nauseous. Jane bounced around the room like everything was totally fine. "Everything is not totally fine," Darcy moaned into the pillow.

"What did you say?" Jane yelled from the bathroom.

"I want to _die_."

"C'mon, get up, we have data to collect. There's this really great spot outside of town, really secluded, which is what I need so I don't have any interference with the results," Jane rambled. She yanked the covers off of Darcy and ignored the resulting growl.

In a strange reversal of roles, Jane herded Darcy to the shower and then downstairs for breakfast. Darcy could only stomach a couple pieces of toast, though she did chug the giant glass of orange juice Jane shoved at her.

By the time they reached the quiet little patch of woods, Darcy was feeling a little more human. "I'm going to invent a rune," she told Jane as they hauled the machine between them. "For hangovers. An instant hangover cure."

"You could just not drink so much," Jane responded, amused.

"I can't help that I'm a lightweight," Darcy sighed. "I'm a hard liquor kind of girl, okay? It's hard to have my alcoholic preferences and not get trashed."

"We only had wine last night," Jane reminded her, directing them closer to a large pond faintly visible through the trees.

"Yeah, like, five bottles of it!"

“Five? Really?”

“I don’t actually know, I lost count after the third one,” Darcy admitted, dropping her end to the grass with a relieved groan. She texted Peter back while Jane wandered around the clearing, staring up at the sky in consideration. Darcy let her friend work, knowing when to step back and watch Jane’s brilliant mind at work.

The sun dragged the morning into a pleasantly warm afternoon. Darcy kicked off her shoes and settled into the grass with a sigh. The machine clicked away a few feet in front of her, recording all the data Darcy would put together in a cohesive report later on.

Jane flitted between it and a second, hand-held device, pausing to jot notes and equations down. Darcy watched her, igniting the glamor rune to watch the stars dance across the Fae’s skin and through her hair.

“You look like a supernova without your glamor,” Darcy said as the sun began its descent, dimming the sky to a deep purple.

Jane glanced up distractedly. “What?”

“Your true form, or whatever.” Darcy waved a hand. “It looks like a human supernova.”

“That’s flattering,” Jane said, huffing a laugh.

“It’s the truth.” She turned over the lay on her stomach across the grass, kicking her feet into the air. Darcy propped her chin up on her hands and smiled at Jane. “You look super badass.”

A smiled twitched at the corner of Jane’s mouth and she ducked her head. “That’s not the word I’d use for it,” she said. The smile twisted into something sadder, self-deprecating. Darcy couldn’t imagine looking how Jane did, containing power so explosive that Queens trembled at the thought of her, and then being thrust into a human world that scorned any and every difference in people.

“It’s incredible, Jane,” Darcy said softly. “It’s almost as if you were born loving the stars, and they loved you back, so much that they gave you all they could to prove it.”

Jane stared at her, teary-eyed. “What the fuck? Are you a poet or something?” She swiped impatiently at her wet eyes.

Darcy grinned. “What can I say? I have hidden depths.” Jane rolled her eyes. “Okay, most of the credit goes to my mentor.”

“Sophia, right?” Jane asked, brushing a hand over her notebook. Darcy nodded.

“Yeah. She’s fucking awesome, taught me most everything I know about machines.”

“Her letter of recommendation was very convincing,” Jane admitted.

“Soph’s very in touch with herself, who she is and what she feels,” Darcy said. “She handled so much of my teenage angst, you don’t even know.”  Jane laughed. “But seriously, she taught me a lot about myself. She’s basically my very insightful aunt.”

“The aunt that’s basically married to your mercenary aunt?”

“Yep!” Darcy said cheerfully. “They’re my very wise, very loving lesbian aunts.”

Jane snorted. She set her notebook down and stretched, yawning.

“Wow, we’re finished already?” Darcy asked, flailing back into a seated position.

“No,” Jane said. “We’ve still got a couple hours, I want to get a little more work done.”

“Yes, boss,” Darcy sighed. She walked over to the machine, crouching to assess today’s chances of an explosion. “Twenty six percent chance of exploding,” she decided, patting the machine encouragingly. “You’re doing great!”

“That doesn’t help anything,” Jane said, amused. She walked back towards the lake, eyes on the small device in her hands.

“Sure it does,” Darcy argued, focused on the small read-out screen. “This thing works in four-hour increments and then throws a tantrum to end all tantrums. We have to keep it happy, Jane, _or else.”_

“As long as you don’t start naming the-” Jane cut off when a huge shape leaped out of the water and slammed into her. Darcy scrambled to her feet, her spark already rising to the surface as the shape dragged her friend into the lake.

“Jane!” Darcy shouted, running for the water. Something flashed underneath, bright and hot like- Darcy took a deep breath and dove into the lake, swimming for the sharp flare of her friend’s magic. She reached a hand towards the struggling figures, squinting through the murky water.

The burst of power knocked the dark shape back, away from Jane. Darcy projected a shield between it and Jane as the Fae swam for the surface. A second shape struck Darcy from behind, knocking the air from her lungs.

She instinctively gasped in pain and promptly swallowed half a gallon of water. Darcy whirled around, throwing another shield up right as the first creature barreled towards her.

The second one sank its teeth into her arm while she was distracted. Darcy's eyes watered in pain; she was faintly aware of another bright-hot flare closer to the shore.

She was dragged further out; Darcy pressed her palm to the thing's face and blast of power so strong she was a little afraid of electrocuting herself, too, in the water. It released her long enough that Darcy managed to kick to the surface, gasping for air.

"Kelpie!" Jane shouted, still fighting the first one. It had crawled partially out of the water after the Fae, teeth bared.

"That is not a selkie!" Darcy screeched back, barely dodging the next snap of fangs. It circled underneath her.

"Not selkie, _kelpie_ !" Jane waved her arms around, like that explained anything. " _Kelpie_ \- oh, forget it!" Jane dove back into the water after Darcy, twisting around to face the kelpie still trailing her.

Teeth caught her around the arm again and Darcy was dragged back underneath the water. She kicked back, fighting uselessly against its strong grip. Her spark flickered and Darcy sent a shield shooting through the water to protect Jane. Her own shield blocked the vicious strike from the kelpie's tail; Darcy felt the force of the blow in her bones.

Just when she thought they were well and truly fucked, claws swiped across the kelpie's face. Blue-black blood clouded the water and the kelpie released Darcy with a scream of pain and rage. Peter yanked Darcy back, dragging her to shore. The kelpie swam after them, furious and half-blinded.

Darcy squirmed frantically until she caught sight of Chris towing Jane, too. She heard the _bang-bang-bang_ of Chris's pistol, the silver bullets finding their mark. The kelpies sank lifelessly to the bottom of the lake, their blood staining the water a sickly color.

Peter pulled her to shore and kept a hand on her back while Darcy dropped to her knees and coughed up what felt like gallons of disgusting lake water. She heard Jane coughing a few feet away, Chris up and monitoring the water to make sure the creatures were dead.

"Hi, Dad," Darcy said weakly. Peter's hand twitched on her back in surprise, but the touched smile spreading across his face promptly disappeared when she coughed up more water.

"Don't you 'hi, dad' me," Peter said archly. "You are in _so_ much trouble." He took a shaky breath when she leaned sideways into him, shivering.

"Well, that sucked," Darcy rasped.

"Maybe you should have thought about that before you went swimming with a kelpie."

"It grabbed Jane," Darcy protested, tucking herself under his arm.

He dragged her closer and let her cling tightly to him. Peter pressed his face to her hair and closed his eyes. "I saw it drag you under," he said lowly. "And you didn't come back up." Darcy shuddered. She'd never laugh at a shark movie again. That shit was _terrifying_.

Chris offered Jane his jacket and approached. "Can't you stay out of trouble for one day?" Chris asked with a gentle smile, crouching down to tuck Darcy's wet hair out of her face.

"Yesterday went just fine, I'll have you know," Darcy croaked. She could feel the force of Peter's eye roll. Jane staggered closer after visually checking on her machines. Darcy had to restrain her own eye roll. Jane's priorities were so screwed up.

"This is Jane," Darcy said when Peter glanced up. "She's the Seelie Queen's daughter and also my friend." Chris nearly dropped his pistol in shock. Jane smacked a hand over her face, exasperated.

"She's the-" Peter twisted to stare incredulously at Jane's guarded face. Darcy poked him pointedly in the side. "Of course she is," he finally sighed. "You don't do anything halfway, do you?"

"Nope."

"Well, the Seelie Queen already hates our guts," Chris said, considering. "This could be a good thing."

"She hates Jane more," Darcy said, sitting up with Peter's help. "Tries to kill her all the time." Jane gave an apologetic nod and shrug, dwarfed in Chris's jacket.

"Never mind," Chris sighed.

"She'll definitely fit in, then," Peter said with a wink in Jane's direction. "We Hales have a gift for pissing people off."

"That's the truth," Chris muttered. Peter eyed him.

"I need to shower," Darcy said, interrupting whatever Peter was about to say. She watched the healing rune on her armband light up gold and the bloody marks on her arm heal. Jane obeyed when Darcy waved her over, wrinkling her nose at the itch when Darcy healed the Fae's wounds.

"We'll get you back to the hotel," Peter said. He and Chris helped her stand; Chris went to help Jane with the equipment. Peter slipped an arm over her shoulder and pressed a kiss to her wet hair. "And then, darling, you can tell me all about the other near-death experiences you've had since you left home."

Darcy sighed in defeat and let herself be dragged along, resigned to Peter's concerned hovering for the rest of their visit. 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The plan is for the Avengers, then Thor 2, and then the next part will start with the actual Avengers team crossover! 
> 
> Also, again, I don't hate Coulson, but you KNOW Jane does after Thor


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Meant to upload this earlier, but I had a nightmare of a weekend. Today's been better, though, so I felt okay enough to finish writing this!

_ " Norway? _ _"_ Darcy asked in disbelief. "What the hell is in  _ Norway  _ that's so interesting for an astrophysicist?" 

"I know, I know," Jane sighed. "But their university wants me to speak at a conference there." 

"And they just invited you out of the blue?" Darcy's face was skeptical. 

"Us. They invited us," Jane corrected. She hesitated, looking unsure. Darcy spoke before the Fae could voice her fear. 

"Obviously I'm not letting you go to  _ Norway  _ alone." She rolled her eyes. "Honestly, Jane." 

"Stop saying Norway like that," Jane said, biting back a smile. "Also, we should probably start packing. Our flight leaves in four hours." 

"What the fuck, Jane!" Darcy yelped. She scrambled to pack, wondering how to break the news to the pack that she and Jane were going to  _ Norway. _

~*~ 

The University of Tromsø offered them a large, open lab space and left them to get settled in. 

"How long do they think we're staying?" Darcy wondered aloud as she walked around the lab. The friendly but confused grad student that showed them to the lab seemed to think it would take them a while to unpack everything.  

"I don't know," Jane frowned. She looked around, noting the dusty spaces and lopsided furniture. "I feel like we've been shoved into an extra lab and forgotten about." 

"Not exactly the treatment expected for someone they asked to come," Darcy agreed. "Also, aren't you here to give a presentation? Why would we unpack our equipment?" 

"I mean, we're going to, because I want readings here," Jane said. 

Darcy looked at the mountains of equipment and groaned. "Of course we are."

Unpacking and setting up the machines took hours. Once it was finished, the machines ticking away, Darcy went back to her exploring. She stopped by an oddly shaped section of the far wall, as if something had been boarded up. "Weird," Darcy said under her breath. She pressed curiously at the board and yelped when it crumbled to pieces.

Jane glanced up from across the room at the cloud of ash around the spark. "The hell? Is that a fireplace?" 

Darcy coughed, waving a hand to dispel the ashes. "I think so. Why was is boarded up?" 

"And why did you have to break it?" Jane asked, exasperated. 

"I just touched it," Darcy protested. "And then it-" She jumped back when something small fell from the chimney, landing in the fireplace and bouncing out onto the floor. It had a small little body the same color of the ash, reaching Darcy's knee in height. 

"What the hell?" Darcy blinked down at the creature. It peered back up at her with dark, wide-set eyes in a petite face. "It's... kind of cute." 

The thing hiccuped once and burst into flames. 

Darcy screeched in surprise. Jane halted from where she'd been approaching, half-way across the lab. Another figure bounced across the floor to land beside the other one, followed quickly by two more. 

Darcy leaped across the lab for the fire extinguisher. "I know I said it was cute," she said, turning to watch the burning creatures. "But I was young and stupid then." 

"That was thirty seconds ago," Jane reminded her, shoving her notebook into her waistband. 

"I said what I said," Darcy told the Fae, backing further away from the fireplace as a fifth one tumbled out. "What are these? Ifrits?" Darcy asked, stepping back when the little fire spirits turned at the sound of her voice. 

"I think so." 

"You  _ think  _ so?" 

"I'm not an expert on every Fae-related creature on earth, Darcy!" Jane snapped. "These are usually much bigger." The ifrits looked between the two women. 

"They've been locked inside a dusty old fireplace in Norway. Would that explain it?" 

"They grow with their fire," Jane mused. "So... probably." 

"Good enough for me," Darcy said. She looked down at the ifrits, considering. "Should we send them to the Fae realm?" Darcy glanced back at the fireplace. "I don't really want to shove them back into the fireplace." 

One of the ifrits bent down and touched a finger to a stray piece of paper. It squealed in delight when the paper burned into ash. Another ifrit jumped onto the paper, basking in the fire. 

"We need to make a decision, Jane, before they burn the lab down," Darcy said nervously. She adjusted her grip on the fire extinguisher. 

"We could," Jane said. "But the longer I hold a gate open, the higher the chance that something worse comes through." 

"So we just have to get them all in one place?" As if they were aware of the women's plotting, the ifrits clambered over each other towards them, leaving small fires in their wake. 

"Yes!" Jane yelled, climbing onto a desk. The largest one reached Darcy's waist now, bolstered by its companions' flames. 

Darcy looked around, thrust out a hand, and sent a wild stream of magic towards the ifrits. 

They scattered. 

"Damn it," Darcy growled, chasing one down. Another climbed onto the desk beside Jane's, crouching to lunge. Jane kicked it off the desk and climbed down from her own. 

Jane grabbed a heavy blanket from her bag and tackled another to the ground, snuffing it out. "Darcy!" 

The spark turned and quickly created a shield around the ifrit, imprisoning it in a bubble of her magic. She glanced over to see another ifrit hanging off the doorknob to the lab, kicking its little feet as it dangled from the wooden door. 

Darcy smacked it on the head with the fire extinguisher hose, catching it with her spark when it fell. She wrapped it up in a bubble, too, and sent it rolling across the floor to sit beside the other one. 

"This is so stupid," Jane growled, chasing a third across the lab. Darcy caught the fourth as it tried to climb up the legs of a wooden table and sprayed the smoldering table leg with the extinguisher. 

Jane finally just dropped her glamor in front of the third one, which squealed in terror and ran close enough to Darcy that she could snatch it up, too. "Darcy, the scientists! They're coming back!" Jane yelped. 

Darcy hurriedly sprayed the fifth ifrit in the face with the fire extinguisher, sending it tumbling backwards. "Act natural!" Jane hissed. She glamored herself and the room so that nothing looked awry. All five of the ifrits corralled, Darcy leaned casually against a table as the totally-human scientists stepped into the lab. 

The table buckled under its burned leg. Darcy barely managed to stay upright as it crashed to the floor. The scientists looked at the two women- both breathing hard- the table, and the fire extinguisher still in Darcy's hand with alarm. 

"Hi!" Darcy said cheerfully. "As you can see, we're all settled!" A small fire burned a foot away from her. "Everything is fine." She could see the ifrits clawing at their confinement in the corner of her eye. 

"We will... come back later," a woman at the front of the group decided. They eyed the two women warily and left, unaware of the singe marks on the doorframe. 

"Great," Jane huffed. "They probably think we're insane." 

"So does everyone else, Janie, who cares about a few more non-believers." Jane glared at her. Darcy waved a hand at the fire spirits. "C'mon, we need to get these things out of here." 

Jane stood in the middle of the lab and gathered her strength; opening Fae gates always took a lot out of her. She'd need a lot of food and a nap after it was done. 

"Ready?" Jane asked. "You'll have to be quick." 

"I got it," Darcy assured her. "You open, I throw, you close." 

"Just don't leave your magic active in there for long," Jane warned. "Someone will feel it and can track our general location." 

"Great, that's not super terrifying at all." Darcy inched closer to the Fae and nodded. Jane pressed her hands tightly together, fingers white with the force of her grip. Darcy held her breath when Jane slowly peeled her hands apart, widening them to her shoulders. The air rippled in front of the Fae, shifting around in a dizzying vision as the other realm was revealed. 

"Now," Jane said tightly. Darcy obeyed instantly, throwing her power through the gate. The ifrits went flying into the Fae realm. Darcy immediately dissipated the magic, letting the fire spirits fall the short distance to the ground. 

"Good." Jane slammed her hands together. The gate closed. 

The lab was left oddly silent after all the shrieking and running around. Darcy looked at Jane. Jane looked at Darcy. 

They dissolved into laughter. 

“Your face when it caught on fire!” Jane gasped, doubled over. 

_ “Their _ faces when they walked in the door!” Darcy cackled. 

“We should probably fix the lab,” Jane said once their laughter had run out. 

“Eh.” Darcy looked around, noting the scorch marks and damaged tables. “They’re the ones that shoved us in a lab with a bunch of fire spirits. I vote they clean up the consequences of that total dick move.” Jane eyed her. “What? Obviously  _ someone _ knew about the ifrits, or the fireplace wouldn’t have been boarded up!” 

“I think it was actually a furnace,” Jane said mildly. 

“Whatever, Jane. C’mon, let’s finish preparing your speech. I still think you should open with the space pun.”

“I’m not opening with your space pun, Darcy.”  

“You’re no fun.” 

Jane stalked back into the lab two days later, practically steaming at the ears. Darcy jumped when Jane slammed the door behind her. “I’m going to tear Shield into pieces!” Jane snarled. She threw her notecards aside and watched them scatter across the floor. 

“Um, I’m totally down for dismantling a shady government organization, but can you explain why first?” Darcy set her toolbox- a graduation gift from Sophia- aside and watched Jane pace the lab. 

“I went to the auditorium for the presentation,” Jane started. Darcy nodded- she’d planned to go with her, until smoke started hissing out of the Dimensional Relay Detection Array and Darcy had to scramble to do some damage control before they set the lab on fire for the second time in three days. “Only to find out that they didn’t have me scheduled for a presentation. In fact, they’re not sure why I’m here at all!” 

“Oh, shit,” Darcy said. 

“Oh, shit is right, because when I find out-” 

“No.  _ Jane _ .” Darcy said, staring in horror at the news feed on her open laptop. She pointed to the screen, showing live footage of New York City under attack. 

“Oh, shit,” Jane breathed, stumbling over to sit beside Darcy on the floor. 

“What are those things?” Darcy asked, pressing a hand to her mouth when one landed behind a group of civilians. “Oh, no no no no.” Darcy snatched her phone out of her pocket and dialed with trembling hands. 

“I knew it,” Jane said softly, staring at the screen with both wonder and horror. She gasped when the portal opened wider and a stream of aliens soared through. 

“No one is answering,” Darcy said desperately. “Why is no one picking up?” She blinked away the pressure building behind her eyes and tried to focus. 

Jane tore her eyes away from the screen. “Who’s in New York?” 

“Um,” Darcy took a breath and listed them off. “Laura, Derek, Stiles, Jackson, Danny. Julian.” She nearly dropped her phone when it rang. “Lydia?” 

“No one’s answering,” the banshee said tightly. 

“I know, I can’t get anyone, either.” Darcy ran her fingers through her hair and stared helplessly at the screen. 

“Stiles and Derek are in Maine,” Lydia said. 

“Wait, what?” 

“They’re on a hunt. Local djinn were causing some problems, so they left a couple days ago to go check it out.” 

“But they’re not answering, either.” 

“No one’s heard from them since they got there.” Lydia took a measured breath. “Allison and I were on our way there when…” When the sky opened over NYC and aliens flew through it, she didn’t say. When their entire world was turned upside down. 

“So it’s Laura, Danny, Jackson, and Julian,” Darcy summarized. 

“Yes.” 

“Darcy, look!” Jane stabbed a finger at the screen. Darcy blinked down in shock at the sight of Thor, just a flash of movement but so very identifiable with the red cape and blonde hair. 

“Thor!” Darcy had never felt so relieved in her life. “And Iron Man, look!” 

“Who… Is that Captain America?” Jane blinked in confusion. 

“Probably just someone dressed like him,” Darcy said distractedly. “He was KIA, remember?” 

“Assumed KIA,” Lydia said. “But there are people fighting back, that’s the important thing here.” 

“There’s so many of them, though, how can- Lydia, Danny’s calling me.” 

“Go, call me after,” Lydia commanded. 

“Danny!” Darcy put the call on speaker when Jane leaned in. 

“Darcy, hey.” Danny sounded exhausted. The two women could barely hear him over the background noise. 

“Are you safe? Is everyone okay?” 

“We’re okay. We’ve been helping evacuate as best we can. It looks like your wards are holding pretty well- the destruction to our building is minimal. The tenants and whoever else passes by on the street are holed up in here.” 

“What about Laura and Jackson?” 

“Laura’s patrolling, making sure no more of the aliens try to get in the apartment building. Jackson is across the street helping people get to safety. And I’m trying to figure out what the hell’s going on,” Danny sighed. “I’ve checked cameras on the street, in the buildings downtown, everything I can hack into. It’s bad, Darce.” Shouting on Danny’s end of the line distracted them all for a moment. 

“Danny?” Darcy asked, worried. 

“It’s just Nate,” Danny explained. “Julian sent a couple of his people over to help.” 

“You‘ve heard from him, then?” Darcy clutched Jane’s hand in relief. It would be nothing short of a miracle if all of her family survived this invasion- especially with half of them out fighting back. 

“Yeah, he’s doing the same thing on his end of the city. All his clubs and hotels are taking in civilians- at least the ones you’ve warded.” A crash sounded. Danny swore. “Darcy, I gotta go, Laura and Nate are surrounded. I’ll call you back.” 

Darcy stared at the laptop screen blankly. Jane rested a hand on her back, pale and worried. They watched the invasion of New York continue in sick silence.  

~*~ 

“They’re not letting anyone in or out of New York,” Darcy said, annoyed. She tossed her phone aside and scowled out the window of the lab. Her family was safe, no one seriously injured. Lydia and Allison found Sties and Derek shortly upon arrival, but the two men were staying tight-lipped about whatever had happened to them. 

“Not officially,” Jane agreed, setting her own phone down. 

“And unofficially?” 

Jane winced. “I could maybe get us in through a Fae gate? But we’d have to travel through the Fae realm a while to get to an NYC gate.” 

“Yeah, no thanks,” Darcy said dryly. “I have no desire to be chased through the Fae realm by whatever nightmare your mother sends after us.” 

“That’s what I thought you’d say,” Jane sighed, somewhat relieved to not have to trek through her mother’s territory. Darcy appreciated that the Fae had even offered it in the first place. She looked at her friend a little more closely. 

“I’m sorry, Jane, I’ve been so distracted by my family I didn’t ask how you were doing about the whole Thor thing.” Danny shared reports of Thor’s absence only a day after Tony Stark had flown a nuke into the portal and then fell from the sky.

Jane waved a hand dismissively. “I’m fine. I knew the guy for like, a week.” 

“Yeah, but you guys had an instant, cosmic attraction,” Darcy reminded her. “He promised to come back for you.” 

“And then he didn’t,” Jane shrugged, turning away to stare down at the data report Darcy had compiled earlier. “It doesn’t matter,” Jane said, glancing briefly at Darcy. “I’m hardly in a position to date the God of Thunder.” 

“Sure, whatever, Queen of the Stars,” Darcy teased. Jane rolled her eyes but couldn’t stop her lips from curving into a smile. 

“Don’t call me that, either.” 

“Yes, your highness.” 

_ “Darcy!”  _ Darcy laughed and narrowly dodged the thrown pen. 

“So what’s the plan, then?” Darcy asked after a brief silence. “Since New York’s not possible.” 

“What are you thinking?” Jane asked, twisting in her chair. 

“Well, my family is safe- for now, at least- and we’re already in Europe,” Darcy mused. “It probably wouldn’t hurt for me to make a few contacts over here.” 

“So we’re staying in Europe?” 

“We’re staying in Europe.,” Darcy confirmed.  “For now.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's almost time for the move into the tower!! I'm very excited.
> 
> [What Happened In Maine](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15653433?view_adult=true)


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this took a little longer than usual, but that’s only because I got too excited and wrote the first 5 chapters of the next part instead. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯  
> So Part 5 will be up shortly, as soon as I finish editing the first chapter for the third time.
> 
> Extra points for whoever catches the most important future-plot-relevant detail (for those of you that have already read part 4, anyway)!

Darcy would like to reiterate that she did not get _nearly_ enough credit for all the bullshit in London.

Alien invasions? Old news.

The Seelie Queen realizing her daughter had absorbed one of the infinity stones and remained totally intact, other than occasionally feeling a little faint, and then immediately deciding to pay her a visit? Conveniently after Jane and Thor bailed to Asgard, leaving Darcy all alone on Earth to deal with her? New- and arguably more concerning- news.

Jane would _never_ live this one down, Darcy would make sure of it.

“Leaving me to deal with your crazy ass mother all alone,” Darcy grumbled under her breath. “’We have to stop the alien invasion, Darcy!’” She mimicked rudely. “Sure, but _which one first?”_

“Infinity stone,” Jane reminded her, elbowing the spark gently aside to help clean the dishes in the sink of the tiny London apartment. “Absorbed into my body. Leeching off my powers.”

“You just had to touch it, huh?” Darcy cracked a smile at Jane’s sheepish expression.

“You have a natural curiosity, my love,” Thor said, pressing a kiss to Jane’s cheek. He winked at Darcy. “Which means you are nearly always in some sort of trouble.”

“Me?!” Jane said indignantly, dropping the half-washed plate into the soapy water and almost splashing Darcy in the face. Thor and Darcy shared commiserating looks. “Like you two are any better!”

“Excuse me, you inadvertently started two alien invasions in the last week alone,” Darcy reminded her friend.

“The Dark Elves were coming anyway,” Jane argued. “And my mother... well. She’s just-”

“The worst,” Darcy finished for her with a decisive nod.

Jane nudged her with an elbow. “You did good, though, Darce.” Thor nodded in agreement behind the Fae. Darcy smiled down at her hands.

Right around the time Jane was having the Aether drawn out of her by Malekith, the Seelie Queen appeared at the Fae gate nearest the apartment Jane and Darcy had rented. Jane had helpfully pointed out the city’s three total gates for Darcy to ward when they’d first arrived, so they were activated immediately when the Fae Queen tried to cross over.

What followed was a three hour long negotiation, a brief scuffle in which Darcy blasted two Winter Fae into ice cubes when they tried to rush her, and two hours after that of the Seelie Queen setting all of her magic and will against Darcy to try and force her way through.

Had they been in the Fae realm, maybe the Queen would have won. She reigned over the Fae for centuries in earth time, after all, thanks to the strength of her magic and will. But Darcy had two feet planted on solid ground in her own realm, and she didn’t give a single inch.

“I mean, now she hates you even more, if that’s even possible,” Jane continued. “Especially because you made her look bad in front of the Court.”  

Darcy sighed. “At this point, we can only go up, I guess.”

“Earth is lucky to have you as its defender,” Thor proclaimed. “Perhaps you should join the Avengers, lightning sister,” he teased.

Darcy snorted. “No fucking thanks, big guy. I’ve got my hands full with the supernatural world.” She finished drying the plates from dinner and handed them to Thor so he could put them away. “And they’re antsy enough with me just existing. I think joining a team of superheroes would cause a riot.”

“You’re a peacekeeper, are you not?” Thor asked, accepting the silverware she handed him. “Your world would protest your involvement with other peacekeepers?” He looked skeptical and maybe a little judgmental. Darcy could relate.

“We never said it made any sense,” Jane sighed. “They’re afraid of power, and Darcy has a lot of it. It’s put a target on her back from day one.”

“My father would not welcome many humans on Asgard,” Thor said conversationally after a moment of comfortable silence. He sat in one of the dilapidated chairs Jane and Darcy had found in a thrift shop. It looked like a kiddie chair under Thor's enormous frame. “But he would accept you, as my personal guest, should you ever desire a reprieve.”

“Thanks, big guy,” Darcy said, sniffing a little. Jane stared at Thor for a long moment with a soft smile. “How’s your mom doing?”

“She was gravely injured by Malekith,” Thor said, sobered. “But the healers on Asgard are very talented. She still clings to life, and the healers have hope that she will awaken one day.”

“I’m glad,” Darcy said, wrapping her arms around his enormous shoulders in a hug. He patted her back gently.

An hour later, Darcy tripped over Mjolner on her way out the door, trying to escape the heated looks between Thor and Jane. She’d learned the hard way last night that they were _loud,_ and not particularly shy.

She walked the streets of London, hands shoved in her pockets because she forgot her gloves in her mad dash out the door. Her new sweater, knit in the past week to settle the internal screaming playing on a loop in her head after the Seelie Queen gave her a black-lipped grin across the thin veil between their worlds, was ugly as sin but did the job.  

(Erik eyed her skeptically from across the room. “What are you doing?”

“Knitting a sweater, so at least I’ll be warm when we all die tomorrow.”)  

Reconstruction of the damaged places in the city had already begun. Darcy steered away from it all, not eager to return to the site of the most recent alien invasion. Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she smiled at the name on the caller ID.

“Naomi, you would not believe the week I’ve had.”

“I saw you on the news footage, kid, I can _definitely_ believe the week you’ve had,” Naomi laughed. “You’re okay, though?”

“Yeah, no permanent damage,” Darcy reassured the other spark. “I mean, except emotionally.”

“Understandable.”

“The Seelie Queen tried to come after Jane,” Darcy said, kicking at a small piece of rubble.

Naomi snorted. “Again?”

“Yeah, but this time she came herself.” Darcy glared at the heavily warded and essentially invisible Fae gate she passed by- not the one she’d fought the Queen at, but one of the three total gates in the city. She decided to go check the other two as well.

“The Queen came through the gate?” Naomi’s voice sharpened.

“No, I stopped her from crossing over,” Darcy said with a tired sigh. “And then the _other_ aliens showed up.”

Naomi hummed in sympathy. “Darcy, if one of the Queens tries to come through a gate again... Call me. Immediately.”

“What do you mean ‘one of the Queens’?” Darcy asked, concerned. She slowed. “I’ve only ever interacted with the Seelie Queen.”

“And I’m forever grateful you’ve been spared so far,” Naomi said. “But the Unseelie Queen is somewhere in the Fae realm, and I don’t want her to take us by surprise one day.”

“Have you seen her?” Darcy asked quietly. She eyed the second Fae gate closely as she passed it and then continued, reassured it was just as thoroughly warded.

“Not in person, no, and I’m honestly not sure there’s a human alive who has.” Darcy sucked in a breath.

“You think she’ll try something?”

“I think time passes differently in the Fae realm, and we’re lucky she’s kept her attentions there for as long as she has. Whatever she decides to do, whatever her ambitions may be... Let’s just say she can make the Seelie Queen’s ambitions look like child’s play.”

“That is...”

“Yeah, I know. I’m looking into it.”

“What do you mean? Looking into what?” Darcy noticed the slender werewolf trailing her a little over a block behind away- a frequent shadow since their arrival in London. Darcy smelled of magic and wolf and Hales; Jane like Fae and something vast, bright, and hot. It put the local packs on edge.  

“Nothing concrete,” Naomi said reassuringly. “Tell me about the God of Thunder, huh? He still there?” Darcy rolled her eyes at the abrupt change in topic but obeyed, more than happy to complain about being sexiled from the apartment.

~*~

“Wow, another autograph, huh?” Darcy asked with a grin as Jane returned to her seat at the small restaurant in Dublin. She pulled out her phone and added a check to Jane’s column. “You’re pretty close to Thor’s total, Janie.”

“Why does this keep happening?” Jane asked, baffled.

Darcy rolled her eyes. “You saved the world, remember? It was televised all around the world. Plus, someone identified you and now you’re the world’s one and only intergalactic wormhole expert.” She sniffed and pretended to wipe away a tear. “My girl’s growing up so fast.”

“Oh, shut up,” Jane muttered, her cheeks pink.

“No, this is a good thing,” Darcy said, stealing a bite off of Jane’s plate. “How many little girls out there saw you kicking ass in an alien invasion and now want to be just like you?”

“You were there too,” Jane reminded her. “And Thor.”

“Well, yeah, but you were obviously in charge. Also, I still am not one hundred percent clear on what you did or how any of it worked. Hopefully no little girls aim to be as clueless as I was during that entire event.”

“You’d also just fought my mother, that’s hardly fair to you,” Jane defended. She looked around the restaurant. “Where’s Thor, he said he’d meet us here at twelve.”

Darcy pointed out the window. “He saw a dog and got distracted.” She grinned at the delirium outside. “I’m not sure who’s happier about this- Thor, the dog, or the owner.” Possibly the owner, who was taking pictures of the meeting faster than the speed of light.

Jane’s phone rang. She ignored it. Darcy sighed pointedly until Jane caved and accepted the call, stepping outside to hear better with a glare towards Darcy. Darcy smiled sweetly back. Jane needed to start answering her own calls like an adult. She couldn’t make Darcy do it forever.

“I very much like Midgard’s canine species,” Thor told her as he sat beside Darcy.

“That’s good, because they like you, too,” Darcy laughed. “You’re covered in dog hair.”

“It’s of no matter,” Thor shrugged. “Maybe I will adopt one of these canines for my stay on Midgard.”

“Don’t you technically live in Stark tower?” Darcy asked skeptically. “I’m not sure Tony Stark allows pets in his building.” Though maybe he’d had a change of heart, after his California mansion crashed into the ocean and he’d had yet another near-death experience. Darcy could relate, on so many levels.

“We shall see,” Thor said with a confident smile. Jane stumbled back inside just then, wide-eyed as she lowered back into the chair across from Thor as he ordered his lunch.

“Jane?” Darcy asked when her friend just stared at the two of them, seemingly in shock. “You okay?”

“That was Pepper Potts,” Jane said numbly. Darcy nearly dropped her fork in surprise. “She just offered me a job.”

“Holy shit, Jane,” Darcy said. “You’d have basically unlimited funding.”

“She said she would email me the contract.” Jane stared blankly at her phone and then handed it to Darcy. “I forgot my email password.”

“Of course you did,” Darcy sighed, but typed it in for her. The waitress arrived with Thor’s food; he ate enthusiastically, as always, while Jane read through the contract. Finally, she handed her phone back over to Darcy and sat back with a slight scowl.

Darcy read it carefully, but it was pretty straight forward, as contracts go. A massive funding offer, all publishing rights remain with Jane as long as she lets the Stark Foundation release the publications first, Stark Tower living space included in the deal. “This is huge, Jane,” Darcy said, shaking her head in awe.

Jane crossed her arms. “You’re not mentioned in it.”

Darcy blinked. “Well, no. I’m the assistant, not the scientist. I didn’t think they’d offer me a job, too. They’ve probably got fifty peons at the tower to do all the grunt work.”

“I don’t _want_ one of their peons, I want _you.”_

Thor looked between them and then visibly decided to stay out of it.

Despite the warmth in her chest at Jane’s declaration, Darcy rolled her eyes. “Jane, you cannot turn this down just because you can’t bring your own assistant.”

Jane scowled harder. “Take the offer, Jane,” Darcy said quietly. She tried to hand the phone back to the Fae.

“If you’re not going, I’m not going,” Jane said stubbornly, swatting the phone aside. Darcy watched as Thor barely caught it before it hit the ground and wondered when she’d earned this depth of loyalty, when their initial tentative alliance had transformed into this fierce, unwavering love.

“You are not paid by Jane, correct?” Thor asked when the two women stared at each other, at an impasse.

Darcy blinked at him. “No, I don’t really need a steady paycheck. It saves grant money for Jane, anyway.”

“Perhaps the lady Pepper does not know you are Jane’s employee, then,” Thor suggested. “And thus would not know to extend an offer to you, as well.”

“Since you aren’t listed under anything official,” Jane finished. “Thor, you’re a genius.” She snatched the phone out of Thor’s hand and pressed a grateful kiss to his cheek. “I’m gonna call her.” Jane darted back outside, phone pressed to her ear.

Darcy watched, uncertain. “A lot of my family’s in New York,” she told Thor. “I was probably going to the city, anyway.”

“You are a dear friend to us both, Lady Darcy. Jane does not wish to be separated from you, nor do I, if it can be prevented. You are her closest friend and guard in this complicated world of yours.”

They’d really only just found each other, Darcy thought. A couple years of friendship, though it felt longer. Darcy didn’t want to leave Jane, either.

Jane stomped back over to the table with a smug smile. “Check your email.”

Darcy didn’t reach for her phone. She just smiled at her friend and said, “I love you, too, Jane.”

“Yeah, yeah, you know I love you,” Jane said with a roll of her eyes. “Now check your email for your new Stark employee contract.” She grinned at Darcy. “We’re going to New York.”  

 

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback is very much appreciated! I'm i-like-plan-m on tumblr if you want to come say hi
> 
> Obviously, I don't own any of these characters.
> 
> *I don't have a beta, so all mistakes are my own... On that note, please let me know if I missed something glaringly obvious grammar or plot-wise.*


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